Forced Teamwork
by TheBlueBomberBoomer
Summary: When odd new types of robots begin emerging around townsville, that are immune to most attacks used against them. As result, the PowerPuff Girls are forced to work with the RowdyRuff Boys. Will they be able to put aside differences, to find out who made these mechanical menaces?
1. Interrupted Brawl

**Authors Note: Hi all, I hope you enjoy this fic. I'm trying a new style by extending my chapters a good length. I don't know whether or not to continue this, have a good day and take care!**

The city of Townsville. In the usual chill autumn weather fall had only begun just a week ago. The leaves on the trees were beginning to fall off after their colours changed, leaving the trees completely bare, though the peace of the day was disrupted by the all too familiar scene at one part of Townsville.

"I swear, you must be stalking us," a voice rung out, an alarm blaring loudly from a bank that had been robbed in less than a few minutes. There were three young boys floating in the air in a glaring contest with a group of three similar aged girls.

"You're just really predictable," one of the girls responded. She was wearing a pink shirt that had black flower petals on it in random patterns, and she had very long orange hair that reached the entire length of her back, also dawning a red ribbon. She was Blossom, the self-proclaimed leader of the powerpuff girls. They were responding to a robbery that had been caused by their counterparts, the rowdyruff boys, who were created two years ago specifically to combat them. They had fought a lot and each battle felt tenser then the next, but all of them had ended in stalemates.

"Can ya blame us? We're bored" the rowdyruff leader, Brick, responded. He was wearing a red vest that had black flames on it, and he had messy orange hair with a red baseball cap over it. There was also a bandage on his cheek. He wasn't lying, they knew that much. The ruffs only started causing trouble for two reasons; father's orders or just sheer boredom, and they had trouble telling which was the bigger cause of damage to the city was lately.

"Why can't you just play a board game?" another girl quirked, having blonde hair done into two pigtails and wearing a blue dress that had black circles on parts of it. She was Bubbles, who tended to be the more timid of the triplets, but she could fight just as well as them. She couldn't deny her curiosity over why the rowdyruffs couldn't do anything else to cure their boredom, aside from making people scream and causing alarms to ring, which the boys considered fun. She could only see it as a big headache.

"You'd be amazed by how boring they are," another boy added, having spiky black hair and wearing a dark green coat that had a black skull on the front and back of it. He was Butch, the more aggressive of the triplets. He was hard to read at times, that unpredictability in battle granted him the ability to get a lot of cheap shots in. The conversation was normal, they always had some trade between one after another before a fight, like they were psyching each other up.

"Maybe a brain would help with that?" the last of the girls grinned, having a raven black hair that reached her shoulders in length, and wearing a light green shirt that had black stars on it. She was Buttercup, the more intimidating of the powerpuff girls. She didn't hesitate to start a fight and had a temper problem that she wasn't even ashamed of, though Buttercup made the lacking intelligence insult with her light green eyes on the last of the ruffs.

"Hey! Checkers is hard…" the boy growled, having messy blonde hair and wearing a blue leather jacket that had black stripes running vertically along it. He was Boomer, the not so intelligent of the rowdyruffs which often led his brothers, and occasionally the powerpuffs, to tease him because of it. Both groups decided they had enough chit chat, and they all flew at each other, leaving streaks of lights behind them before colliding. All of them scattered to fight in the air, three groups in pairs of two beginning to battle each other.

"Pretty weak. You aren't becoming lightweight on me, are ya?" Butch grinned. He had wound up being separated from the others. Blossom growled, being his opponent this time. Her eyes glowed bright red. She fired a bright ray of heat vision in an attempt to attack him from afar. The green rowdyruff quickly flew under it, charging right at her and throwing his fist into her face, knocking her back a good distance. He flew at her with a dark green streak of light behind him in an attempt to assault her again.

Blossom had a bruise on her cheek, seeing him come towards her. She thought quickly, putting up her guard and blocking a strong kick from him. She pulled back, kneeing his stomach. She raised both her fists up and slammed them down, making him fly downwards. She rushed at him, shining a pink trail of light behind her as she tackled him during his fall.

"What're ya doing?!" Butch growled, punching her once in the head, but he couldn't break out of her grips. She had her arms firmly tight on him as they were heading down fast. Blossom didn't respond, barely a half second later when they collided onto a rooftop, Butch landing back first onto the roof of an apartment full force. The powerpuff leader panted as she got up, seeing him lying there.

"I know you're awake," Blossom said. Her enemy groaned, letting out a painful cough. His chest hurt a lot, the head pain would go away in due time that was just from the punching, but he was worried he had attained a far more severe injury.

"I-I think you broke a rib…" Butch moaned in pain. Blossom felt guilty for causing that kind of harm, aware that it could have done a lot worse to him internally, but she had disabled him from fighting for now. If he was in this much pain, she hoped he wouldn't be able to fight now. She thought she could help her sisters out with the other two ruffs, though before she could move, she heard screaming.

"What's going on? The ruffs aren't causing any problems…" Blossom muttered, walking away from Butch, leaving him to lay there. She knew she had not crippled him, so he could flee when he felt able to. There was no point in jailing the rowdyruffs, as they always broke out. At the edge of the roof, Blossom looked down onto the streets, where she could see a nearby storage facility, the cries of fear leading her there.

"Did your dad send back up for you guys?" Blossom asked, wondering if the rowdyruffs' father had sent help. She saw an odd looking robot. It had a blue body with yellow lights for eyes, a golden fin running down from its head to its back. The robot had a regular build to it. Its joints looked connected by some gold coloured metal, but the robot itself was three times her size. The only weird thing with the robot was its left arm, which looked more like an odd bulb shape with no hand. The robot was nothing new to a powerpuff girl so far. Monsters and robots threatening the town randomly were a common occurrence, sadly, ever since they were five years of age.

"No… dad knows not to mess with our fights…" Butch coughed, looking at the damaged roof they were on. They had done a good bit of damage colliding into it. The rooftop was cracked and had a small crater in it. Blossom had to admit he was right about that. She knew their father, Mojo Jojo, would never send a robot to fight when the rowdyruffs were already in a fight. It was a matter of self-pride, that the ruffs needed to be the ones to fight with no aid.

"Just stay up here. Oh, and if you start coughing blood, seek help immediately," Blossom claimed if he started coughing up blood. If the possibly broken rib might have damaged a lung, it would be bad news for him. Butch hated being ordered around, especially by one of his enemies, but the robot was interrupting the fight that they were having, and now he was injured all because he had been careless. Blossom jumped off the side of the roof to get to the storage facility as fast as she could.

When Blossom got there, the civilians had already cleared out. The big robot had ripped open multiple of the storage units. She hoped her sisters would catch up with her, when and if they finished fighting with the boys. But this robot looked like it will be easy to deal with.

"Hey! You can't steal anything from here!" Blossom declared. She had never seen a robot like this before. It was odd in design, but it looked fairly well made. The light blue paintjob on it was complemented nicely by the gold coloured parts. The yellow eyes glowed eerily as it stomped, turning to face her. Its legs were normal, but the feet were two small spikes, looking to be made to handle any terrain it walked. Blossom knew she had to smash it to stop it. She could tell that the machine was just out to steal something, but had not found whatever it was looking for.

Blossom took in a deep breath before blowing hard, emitting an icy cold breath to freeze the robot. Ice began to cover the robot from head to toe as the area around it slowly began to go stiff in the freezing attack. After a few moments of using her ice breath, she had fully frozen the blue robot and the area around it.

"That was easy," Blossom smirked, wondering what the mechanical enemy had come for in the first place. She attempted to peek into one of the storage units that it had forced open. But behind her back, the ice on the robot was beginning to melt. It emitted a burst of steam from its arm. Blossom turned around, and her eyes widened. Everything felt like it slowed down in that moment. She saw it shatter the ice, and throw a punch at her side with its fist, sending her flying away and crashing into the side of a building.

"Owww…!" Blossom coughed, her vision slightly obscured by the rubble that had kicked up quite a mess of dust. She actually felt that rattle her body. It was like her super tough skin didn't matter to that machine's attack. That thought terrified her to the core. She felt an intense shockwave of pain overwhelm her. She looked at where the pain was coming from. She gulped in fear. Her right arm was impaled near the shoulder on a piece of rebar, blood covering the piece of metal. Her fearful gaze looked at the robot that was standing there, though she saw an antenna rising out of the side of its head like it was calling for something.

"Wh-what's happening?!" Blossom could hear a lot of noises that made her nervous, and any civilians around had cleared out when they saw the robot. A few other robots were crawling out of the storage facilities that had been, unknown to her until now, aiding in the search. However they were all about the same size as Blossom. They had bulb shaped bodies that were painted green, with golden coloured rings around them. Each robot had four legs attached to them. The gathered group of little robots were approaching her. The big robot had summoned them to its aid.

"N-no! Get off me!" Blossom kicked one away that tried to get close to her, but her arm throbbed in pain. She punched another away, but sadly the next one took advantage of her pain and lunged on her, pinning her good arm to the rubble she was stuck on. Another three of the tiny machines approached, about to attack, before suddenly, she saw someone come from above and jump on two of them, crushing them easily under their feet. Blossom was stunned to see Butch, who grabbed the one attached to her arm and pulled it off before spinning around, using it to smash the last one into broken parts, watching the metal fly and various parts explode out of them.

"B-Butch?" she said, shaken at the scene before her. Butch looked at her, he had one hand on his chest. He had his own fair amount of pain. He dropped the robotic leg he had been holding.

"You're gonna regret ruining our fight!" Butch shouted at the robot that had retracted its antenna. Blossom didn't know how to take this announcement. He only saved her because he wanted to be the one to fight her. She would never understand how villains thought. Frankly she hoped she never would. She didn't know what to do about her current situation, though. It was either rip herself off the rebar or break part of it off and have her father treat the wound. She hesitantly spoke up.

"C-can you help get this out of me?" the powerpuff leader reluctantly requested help. Butch approached her. The robot seemed slow but it appeared to be wanting to go back to its search like it had beat them. The black haired boy crouched down beside her.

"Uh… w-what do I do?" Butch asked, not sure how to handle the problem.

"Grab my shoulder and upper arm then pull!" she exclaimed what to do, starting to notice the robot approaching. Butch however felt that he shouldn't, afraid that he will just cause her a lot more pain.

"I-it'll hurt! You know…" Butch got cut off.

"Just pull!" she ordered. He closed his dark green eyes and did as he was ordered. He only heard the sound of what he could only describe as flesh being ripped off a hook, and Blossom's painful cry to go with it. He opened his eyes, seeing her holding the wound which still bled badly. It may have done serious damage to her.

"Ugh… don't let that robot touch you," Blossom advised. Butch wanted to offer help to stop the bleeding, but she already took over controlling her own medical help. She blasted the exposed wound with a ray of heat vision, burning the wound shut, in return that she singed her flesh with a burn mark.

"Get the other side, please," she requested him to hurry up. Butch did as he was told, burning the other part of the wound closed. She bit her lip, having to suffer through the red hot pain. Once he finished, they both got ready. With her arm being damaged and his chest hurting, they both had to tolerate their injuries for now. They had separate plans in mind on how to deal with the robot.

Butch made a blunt attempt to rush at the big robot, leaving a dark green streak of light behind him. He punched at the chest of the robot, but the only thing it did was slightly push it back. He kept punching and punching, but he was not causing any damage to the mechanical menace.

"What is this thing made of?!" the green rowdyruff growled. The robot raised its bulb arm back, letting out a burst of steam before it swung the arm like a heavy baseball bat. Butch ducked under it before seeing rays of heat vision strike it. Blossom was trying to be more ranged in the matter. She didn't want to get close to the enemy if she could avoid it. Her heat vision was hitting it directly in the head, but it was doing nothing but heat up its material.

"Nothings working!" Blossom admitted aloud. The robot had dug its hand into the concrete before throwing a slab of the hard ground at her. She kicked through it, breaking it into smaller chunks. Blossom was racking her brain for any ideas to try and deal with this. Butch had gotten away from the machine. She landed beside him having one idea in her head.

"You know energy projection, right?" she questioned, not recalling the ruffs' abilities, unsure if they had as many as the puffs did.

"Yeah, but I don't think it'll make any difference on it," he nodded, though he could tell by the look in her light pink eyes that she had an idea. They had angered the robot as it was beginning to approach them, each step stabbing its sharp spikes into the ground like they were made specifically to anchor it in place.

"Make a big ball around yourself! I've got a plan," she said. Butch was really getting irritated by being ordered around. He was only trying to help because that robot had put him in a foul mood. He obeyed, concentrating and making a dark green sphere of energy around his whole body. Normally they used energy projection for protecting themselves. He wondered what she had in mind.

"Can you let me in on this pla-ahhhhh!" Butch screamed. With a mighty kick, Blossom had launched the energy ball he was in forward like a soccer ball, sending him spinning and screaming the entire way. He crashed into the robot, bouncing off and making it stumble backwards. As the energy ball bounced into the air, she flew up and spun around, kicking him once more towards the robot. This attack was actually getting a reaction from the enemy. Butch barely hit the ground before she darted down behind him.

"Sorry, sorry!" she apologized, before kicking him once more, sending him spinning toward the robot once more. However the robot's bulb arm was aiming for him as it opened up, revealing three sets of huge sharp shards of gold painted metal within it. It caught Butch, and began closing, his energy shield beginning to crack. He was dizzy, unable to react. The wild ride had gotten the best of the poor ruff.

Blossom saw this, feeling panic and fear set in. She ripped a street light out and flew as fast as she could, jamming it into the robot's arm trap. It took a lot of effort, but she pried it open, Butch rolling out while his energy shield faded away.

"Ugh… I'm going to melt this thing to goop!" Butch got up. His chest pain was back but he was getting over the dizzy effect. The robot's arm reverted to the bulb shape. It looked ready to fight once more, but both of them were drained.

"Butch! We need to go…" Blossom stated, panting. She was running out of energy, and if one of them got grabbed by that robots deadly wrap within its bulb shaped arm, they were goners for sure.

"No! I'm not leaving 'til this hunk of junk is a part of the junkyard!" he stomped, not ready to leave yet.

"We're at our limit! It's either die now alone or leave with me!" Blossom reminded him that she had no intentions of staying any longer. This robot was too much. They handled the tiny ones it had summoned, but they were unable to beat the leader itself. Butch gritted his teeth, struggling to decide. He hated to admit it, but they were indeed going to lose this fight. They couldn't rely on hope that their siblings would find them here.

"Fine!" he threw his arms up. With that, they both flew off, leaving a pink and dark green streak of light behind them. He was following her lead, Blossom looking back at the robot. Its yellow eyes glowed ominously as it began to return to the storage facility.


	2. Helping A Ruff

Blossom had flown with Butch for a short period of time. The air felt colder than usual. She was not sure what that robot was after. All she knew was that it was tough, and one glance at her green acquaintance showed how bad that fight went in their favour. He was visibly upset, looking ready to grab the first car he could see and throw it as far as he could. She knew he could get angry, but she had never seen any of the rowdyruffs in this mood before. Butch didn't even know why he was following her. His chest was hurting and neither of them were able to fight each other right now. He felt depressed and angry for losing to some robot that came out of the blue.

"We're here," Blossom chimed that they were at their destination. Butch saw that familiar two-story house with the nicely tended garden. They landed at the front of the door. He knew where they were.

"Ugh… why are we at your place?" Butch quirked. He held his chest, going into another coughing fit before feeling the pink powerpuff pat his back. This was the Utonium household, the powerpuffs' home. She never imagined herself ever bringing a rowdyruff boy here, but he had saved her life and she had endangered his. The least she could do to make up for it was to get him help for his injury. She led him inside, where the living room seemed empty, but they could see the white couch, the coffee table in front of it and the television across from that. The house had a nice calm atmosphere to it, Butch seeing the various family pictures dangling on the walls. Blossom however didn't see her sisters anywhere, assuming that Buttercup and Bubbles were probably looking for her right now.

"We need to see the professor," Blossom stated they needed to talk to her creator, though when she said it aloud, she didn't know how her father would react to seeing a known enemy right beside her. She led the raven haired boy over to the couch, helping him lay down on it and giving him one of the small pillows to rest his head on.

"Thanks…" Butch groaned. He was drained, and the depression he was suffering from showed a lot more now that he was tired. He just looked horrible. When she tried to take a quick examination of him. He had bruises all over his face and arms, and his knuckles were bloody and damaged. She hoped that broken rib wasn't too bad. She hadn't completely lowered her guard in case of her own safety. Butch though didn't seem to have any hostility right now towards her. She didn't have the faintest idea why she was being so nice either. Even if he saved her life, it didn't make up for all the past brawls the two triplets had been having for so long.

"Don't mention it. I'm going to go get the professor. Just try and relax," Blossom insisted the green ruff try to relax. She got no response from him. He really had lost his spirit. She left the living room and headed for another nearby door that was wide open. Within it, there was a stairwell that lead down to the basement.

"Professor! Are you home?" the powerpuff leader called out, hearing the sounds of a drill digging into a sheet of metal, a good enough answer for her. She climbed down the steps to the basement of her home. The basement was full of various items and junk, including a small board full of blueprints and sticky notes of ideas, and there were chemicals and beakers lying everywhere. It was her father's laboratory. She found him not too far away, trying to drill some bolts together for his latest invention. He stopped when he saw her.

"Oh hi, Blossom. Welcome home," her father greeted. He was wearing a white coat and had short black hair, and he was quite tall in size. He was Professor Utonium, the creator of the powerpuff girls, though it was an accident. Sugar, spice, everything nice and an accidental splash of Chemical X was how the three came to be. Accident or not, he was happy to have them as his daughters. They all had been through quite a lot together. The professor worked at home, making inventions for Townsville. He was funded by various sources as result. Just a second after greeting his child, the professor looked horrified to see her. She looked like a mess. Her face had bruises all over it and her arm had blood covering it along with the burn wound from where she and Butch cauterized her injury.

"Blossom! What happened?!" the professor fearfully asked while picking his little girl up and resting her on the counter. He was the closest thing to a doctor that the powerpuffs had. Other researchers classified him as the chemical X expert because of his knowledge. The orange haired girl felt embarrassed to gain this attention from him, having forgotten her own wounds up until now.

"There was this robot that I couldn't beat. Bubbles and Buttercup are probably still in town handling another problem," Blossom claimed while he examined her. He was already doing his best to clean and disinfect her injuries.

"A robot?" he repeated, finding it a little hard to believe as the extent of her injuries suggested otherwise. He sighed in relief, finishing cleaning the blood off her arm. Once he did, he grabbed her wrist, making her extend her arm to see if she had alright muscle function. She was used to this routine. He had done it before multiple times whenever the puffs got gravely injured.

"Yeah. It was weird. I've never seen a robot like that before. There's someone else upstairs who needs your help too," Blossom stated, the professor letting go of her arm. Everything seemed fine, but he just wished she was more cautious with her own physical health, seeing how she treated the piercing wound with her own heat vision. Her father looked confused. If Bubbles and Buttercup were in town, he wondered who this visitor was that he could help. His daughter floated off, the counter leading her creator upstairs to the living room.

"Is that Butch?!" the professor asked, awestruck, seeing the spiky haired boy sprawled out on his couch. Butch shot him an annoyed glare. He didn't need a sound induced headache added to all his other problems. This wasn't the first time they met. The ruffs had kidnapped the professor on several occasions, and if they hadn't done it, their own creator would take him hostage as well. It was, by extension, a super powered family feud.

"Hey there, old man…" Butch smirked, giving a comment about the ever aging professor. He was more wondering why one of the rivals to the powerpuffs was in his home, let alone resting on his furniture.

"Blossom what's going on?" the professor requested an explanation. He was visibly not happy with this. She knew he would be upset upon seeing the green ruff, but she didn't care. She had to take responsibility for the injuries she had brought upon him in the fight. She was glad the ruff seemed to be holding back on his verbal abuse, but that might be because of his depression.

"He saved my life, professor, and I think I broke one of his ribs, but I'd be as bad as any other villain if I just left him there to die," Blossom explained her reason why she brought one of their mortal enemies here. It was almost like a minor peace pact due to the robot ruining their fight. Professor Utonium looked at the young boy in a little disbelief.

"I'm proud of how far you're willing to go to help people… good or bad," the professor exclaimed that he was glad his daughter had no intentions of letting the simple term evil get between being a hero, saving lives and helping people. All three powerpuffs did their best to help everyone, though Blossom in particular tended to stick her neck out a little too much when it came to helping. She knew the risks and her father was proud as he could be. He went over and picked up Butch.

"Hey! I'm not two, I can walk!" the spiky haired boy growled, not taking kindly to being held like an infant. It seemed like everything in the world was out to try his patience today.

"I'll make sure he's fine. You try and rest," Professor Utonium told his daughter. Butch got a little angrier at being ignored, but he didn't have any strength left in him, pouting as the scientist carried him downstairs to examine him and make sure the injuries were treated. Blossom felt better, knowing he will be in good hands. She sat down on the couch, beginning to go over her own thoughts. She hadn't stopped thinking about that robot, not for one second. She couldn't figure out why most of their attacks did nothing to it. That was another topic to talk over with her entire family.

Blossom looked at her arm that had been wounded earlier by the impalement. It throbbed in pain, just thinking back on that moment. She waited patiently for the professor to tend to Butch, barely noticing how fast the time seemed to pass by.

"Hey! Earth to Blossom! You awake?" she heard with the sound of fingers snapping. She got snapped out of her trance. She saw Buttercup standing there. She had a black eye and a good share of cuts and bruises of her own. Bubbles was sitting nearby, but she looked the least hurt out of them all.

"Oh hi, Buttercup. Sorry, I was thinking," Blossom apologized, not intending to overlook them like that. She felt bad whenever she went into those trances of deep thought.

"Are you alright? How did your fight go?" Bubbles chimed worriedly. The way she was acting, something was wrong. It made her worried that she had lost to her opponent. For the other powerpuff girls, they had another stalemate against Brick and Boomer, but they had spent the last hour searching for their leader since she and Butch had been separated from the groups during the brawl.

"We didn't fight much. A robot got in the way and ruined it," Blossom said. She was starting to understand how Butch felt. The way they lost to the robot was demoralizing, though she knew they had been fighting half crippled and not at full strength.

"Mojo helping the ruffs?" Buttercup inquired if it was the rowdyruffs' creator who had a hand in the robot assault. The pink puff shook her head.

"No. Mojo Jojo could never make a robot that good. We couldn't even dent it. Our attacks were worthless, no matter what we did," she admitted. If it was the monkey behind it, he either had improved dramatically or had gotten help. Both scenarios were ridiculously unlikely. The blonde girl tilted her head.

"We?" Bubbles wondered what their leader meant, seeing her pink eyes focus on her. Before she could say anything, they saw their father come upstairs. He seemed happy, though that expression went away seeing his hurt children.

"Welcome home, Bubbles and Buttercup. Blossom, your friend is fine and recovering," the professor informed Blossom. She was relieved, flying up so she could wrap her arms around him. Buttercup had the pieces put together, and she wasn't happy to discover it.

"Don't tell me…" Buttercup saw her green counterpart climbing out of the stairwell behind the professor. Bubbles already hid behind the sofa and Buttercup was ready to assault him already. Blossom got in between them.

"Stop! Stop!" she demanded. Butch looked a lot better. It turned out he didn't have a fully broken rib, but a few were cracked because of that battle. The green powered children kept their gazes on each other. Professor Utonium hated situations where he was in the middle of a fight about to break out.

"Why should I?! You have to be some kind of idiot to help him-" Buttercup got punched by her leader. She had hit her directly in the chest and sent her back a few steps. That insult had triggered her anger. She wasn't in the mood to fight her sibling. They had disagreements quite a lot, but whenever Blossom was the first to get aggressive in the matter, that was a bad sign.

"I'm not going to fight with you! He saved my life and I owed him the help. End of discussion," Blossom panted. Butch found himself in an awkward position. Did saving her life really balance out how she felt toward him, or was this a temporary thing? Butch couldn't decide what the answer was. Buttercup's teeth were grinding, more than aware of how their leader's mood was right now. She began to head toward the steps to go upstairs.

"I'm going to lay down," the green puff stomped off upstairs. The professor was relieved that things had calmed down. His children always sorted their issues out, so it would pass on its own. He took a seat in the lone chair nearby, Blossom sitting back down. Bubbles was uncomfortable, but she tried to relax since the rowdyruff was being nice right now. Butch knew he was out numbered, so that discouraged any bad thoughts he had for the time being.

"…thanks, Blossom," Butch forced out. He owed her thanks for what she did for him. She smiled in return.

"It's the least I could do. But we have a bigger issue," she responded, trying to focus the topic on the robot that they had encountered. She went into detailing, and describing what exactly happened. Bubbles became more afraid, the more she heard. The way Butch described the robot wasn't pleasant. In fact, he made it out to be some walking death machine that ate people.

"This does sound troubling… and you're sure it was looking for something?" the professor asked, his daughter nodding.

"Half the time it looked like it didn't even wanna fight us!" Butch complained. That annoyed him more, the way the robot tried to just ignore them at first.

"I'm glad you both are safe," Bubbles stated. She didn't know what she would do if she lost her sister. She doubted anyone of the family would be able to get over the loss. The atmosphere was awkward. An old nemesis was sitting nearby, being friendly. Bubbles however liked it. She always believed that they could be nice if given the chance, but everything seemed to be a power struggle lately. She wanted to enjoy the peace while it lasted.

"I'm afraid no one's safe until that robot is disposed of. Did you get a piece of it? Anything at all?" Professor Utonium requested if they had any shards of the robot. Butch rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, we've got nothing. We weren't able to even dent it! What's it matter anyway?" Butch reminded that they had done nothing to it.

"If you had a piece of it, anything from it, I could examine it and maybe figure out why neither of you could hurt it," the professor explained, that if they had anything at all, it could potentially be of great use to countering the robot and any others that followed it. Since someone created that machine, it was safe to assume there were more like it. Butch got out of his chair.

"Alright! Let's go then!" he grinned, Bubbles and Blossom looking to each other nervously.

"Go where?" the blonde girl requested, wondering what the black haired ruff had in mind, seeing him crack his knuckles.

"We're going to go hunt down and scrap that machine!" he exclaimed proudly. He wanted revenge, and he proclaimed it loud and clear. Blossom though stood up.

"No way! It almost killed us both! Even if we brought Bubbles and Buttercup, how do you know it'll go any better? We don't even know where it is!" Blossom countered, stating everything that could go wrong. Even if they did find it out of luck, if two powered children couldn't handle the robot, what would four do?

"Did I say I cared? I'll go destroy it myself if I have to. I'm not going to sit here and wait while it gets away," he said, not wanting to lose the chance they had to find it, if it was still at the storage facility or at the very least in the area around it.

"Then you're being a suicidal lunatic!" she got closer, the two's heads clashing with intense glares burning into each other's eyes.

"What if we get Boomer and Brick?" Bubble's sweet voice called out, causing them to stop arguing. They all looked at her. The professor seemed to agree.

"As much as I'd hate to have them anywhere near you girls… Bubbles is right," the professor recommended while patting Bubbles's back, thankful that she stopped that fight.

"I don't think the other ruffs are going to be as… reasonable as Butch," Blossom put it nicely. The green ruff however seemed to just be going with any idea that sounded worthy of helping get the robot scrapped.

"Yeah, Brick and Boomer are idiots, but they'll listen to me! …I'll go get them and bring them over," Butch agreed before heading for the door. Bubbles was already terrified and the other rowdyruffs weren't even there. She didn't know whether to be proud of her own idea, or unhappy that they were going to have to attempt hard negotiations with their counterparts.

"We'll be here," Blossom said, seeing Butch open the door before he flew off, leaving a dark green streak of light behind him. Blossom plopped back down onto the couch, feeling drained herself. She hated arguing so much, but there were just days where she couldn't avoid it. All the family could do now was wait and hope that Butch could get his brothers to come with no resistance.


	3. Agreement

Butch was flying along, trying to hurry home. He wanted to go hunt down that robot as soon as he could, but he was mentally pondering how he could get his siblings to come meet up with the powerpuff girls. He was worried he would be insulted a lot and then ignored. He could see an image in his head of Brick calling him a sissy for even talking to the girls without hitting them. He got an idea, however, that put a devious grin to his face. He headed straight for the volcano in Townsville that had a small base built on it. It was the rowdyruffs' home, which their father had built a long time ago with the help of the powerpuffs after he had tricked them. It was a mess in and of itself that had to be handled, just one of many tales that mojo had told his sons, as if they did not have enough reasons to hate the girls.

"Hey! I'm back!" Butch called out as he entered into the evil home base. The entrance seemed as normal as any other. He had flown in through a window like they were ordered to do. Though they did love breaking through roofs a lot, it angered their father. Their living room didn't look like anything special. There was no television but a mess of junk lying around on the few chairs in the room and the side tables being covered in trash. They recalled not getting the chance to clean up before they got bored and went off to fight. The green rowdyruff went to another room of the evil base. He entered in through the door, finding just who he was looking for.

"Butch! There you are," Boomer exclaimed in relief, glad to see his brother, having been worried after they couldn't find him when they all got separated in the fight. Boomer had his nose stuffed with tissue paper and his hands were all wrapped in bandages like he had been partially burnt.

"We wasted an hour looking for you," Brick added, his face being a bit bruised. He didn't look all that happy, either, not hesitating to remind their brother about the time they spent searching for him. He didn't show it, but he had been concerned, and he hated having a worrying feeling.

"Sorry. How did your fights go?" Butch replied, wondering how they fared against Buttercup and Bubbles, though he was already aware of the outcome. He wanted to put on an act to help his idea into motion so the super-powered kids could all meet up together. He was desperate to get revenge on that robot more than anything else. Boomer showed his bandaged hands.

"Buttercup's heat vision is strong! She passed out from using too much energy before I blacked out from pain," Boomer exclaimed. Recalling it alone hurt, but another stalemate was another stalemate. It was better than losing.

"Bubbles screamed so loud my ears started bleeding, but I buried her in rubble before I blacked out," Brick explained. He only had recently regained his hearing. He had spent the last span of time with damaged eardrums. Everything he heard had a bad ringing behind it that just gave him a headache. He was thankful to be over it already. Butch thought it was time to put his plan into motion.

"So our fight pretty much went just the same," Butch said before going onto his idea. Their room didn't have much in it. They had a few bean bag chairs, a small television that had a game console on top of it, and three beds put together. It was always an awkward wake up in the morning whenever one of the brothers woke up in another part of the bed like they had a sleepwalking issue.

"I found a great place we can hang out if you guys want," Butch claimed that he had found area for them to spend time at whenever they wanted to. The rowdyruff boys had certain locations in Townsville where they loved to relax at. If they ever needed to get away from their father or just away in general, they would go to one of these secret locations. They had quite the list of hideaways, at least twenty available in Townsville. They had a few emergency ones in the neighboring town Citiesville in case they ever needed to flee town at any time.

"Butch, I'm tired, I'm hungry and I'm too lazy to go anywhere right now," Brick responded. They hadn't received the same quality care that their green brother had secretly gotten. He rolled his eyes, having already thought of something to help get them to this new meeting spot.

"Would you guys come check it out if we steal some pizza along the way?" Butch offered, not minding the idea of thieving some pizza from a delivery vehicle. They were easy to take from. Just one phone call to any location from a payphone, and a flip of the delivery vehicle, and voila. Free pizzas. They did it more frequently than they realized. This offer made Boomer happy.

"Oh yeah! I want anchovies!" Boomer excitedly jumped. His brothers never understood what was with his odd taste buds. Their leader had his arms behind his head.

"Fine. Let's go," Brick got up from his comfortable spot, willing to go check out this supposed hang out since they could enjoy some pizza. The red ruff just hoped this wasn't another water damaged abandoned apartment. He hated those the most as they tended to just horribly fall apart after they tried to spend anytime inside of them. The three rowdyruffs flew off through the window, leaving dark green, blue and red streaks of light behind them. Butch had a grin on him, glad that his plan was working so far. From there he wished to just get them to agree to work with the powerpuffs, but he doubted this would go well. He felt scared, imagining another fight to break out when they were all injured to begin with. Either way, he had to help get some pizza before they went anywhere.

Blossom was in the lab with the professor, helping him out with building one of his many inventions. She always wondered how he tolerated what he did since most of his inventions were failures, but the successful ones were so few and far between. She was amazed he had the patience for it, but she assumed that was the life of being an inventor, working hard until it pays off in the end.

"Blossom! They're almost here!" Bubbles's voice rung out from upstairs. She had seen the rowdyruffs' streaks of light in the distant sky, far from the living room window. Blossom looked up to the professor.

"Do you want to come too?" Blossom offered her father the chance to chat with the rowdyruffs together. He lightly chuckled, rubbing her head.

"No, honey. I'm going to stay down here… and hide in the panic room until you have this sorted out," the professor stated, though he still gave her his utmost confidence that things would work out, even if he didn't believe this would go smoothly. In fact he was already pondering what to tell the insurance company this time if his home got damaged.

"Alright, professor," Blossom giggled before floating up the stairs to let her father go hide away until this was dealt with. Either it resulted in some big fight or just some very annoyed boys leaving with nothing done but time wasted. She noticed Bubbles doing her best to remain calm on the couch. She was hugging a small octopus doll with a tiny top hat on its head. It was named Octi, a toy that she cherished so much since she was born. Blossom approached the door and looked through the eyehole. She saw Butch with his back turned and a bag slung over his shoulder dangling off his side. His brothers were in front of him, looking unamused.

"What in the world, Butch? Why are we here?! I thought you said you were taking us to a new hideout…!" Brick spoke up. It was a little aggravating.

"I said I found us a great place to hang out," Butch reminded them with his exact words. Boomer was looking at the house, aware of the owners of this household.

"This is the puffs' home," the blonde boy pointed out. Before anything more could be said or asked, Blossom opened the door, doing her best to fake a forced smile that already gained a few raised eyebrows.

"H-hi guys, welcome!" Blossom greeted the rowdyruffs. Brick looked bored, Boomer seemed confused, but Butch looked happy. He got them over like he said he would, though she realized the bag over his shoulder was the type of bag a pizza delivery person would carry. She had a good idea where they got that. She could only hope they didn't injure the poor delivery boy too badly.

"Hey, Blossom! I brought my bros. And pizza," Butch happily said as the three entered inside. Brick hated being dragged here. The only reason he followed the green ruff at all was because he withheld the pizza from them. That much was clear when Boomer's stomach rumbled.

"Alright, what's going on? You brainwash Butch or something?" the ruff leader cut to the chase. He wanted an explanation for this right now or else he was going back out that door. The puff leader was taken aback by the sudden wild accusation. Butch didn't seem phased.

"C-calm down, Brick! We needed to talk to you all…" Blossom stated. Bubbles was staying out of this. She vowed to help if a fight broke out, but she hated verbal arguments. They did nothing but depress her.

"And give us one good reason why we should listen," the orange haired boy demanded. Clearly he was in a bad mood between the hunger and the stalemate of a fight both families had today. The raven haired boy spoke up.

"She saved my life. I'm doing her a favor because of that, and our fight got ruined," Butch explained. Brick and Boomer looked to each other, Brick processing the announcement. He groaned going over and sitting in a chair.

"Fine. We'll talk," he agreed. Bubbles and Blossom were relieved with the agreement to talk now. Butch opened up the bag and rested the three boxes of pizza on the table. The blonde girl rested her toy aside, opening one of the boxes, smiling upon seeing the mushroom slices on top of it. She happily took a slice, beginning to eat.

"Right… where do I begin," Blossom muttered, thinking it was best to start out by telling them about the robot and describe every detail she could recall, the key point being the robot's immunity to their attacks, though over the course of her explanation, everyone else in the room was more enjoying their pizza.

"So… a robot beat you both?" Boomer repeated what he heard. It sounded impossible but their injuries seemed to suggest otherwise.

"It ruined our fight! And we need everyone to hunt the piece of junk down," Butch exclaimed. Blossom was glad that everyone was talking without squabbling, it was a good sign that they were all on the right topic for the problem at hand, and Butch was clearly doing his best to make sure the point was made clear.

"Bloss, look, I'm glad you saved my brother's life, but are you sure it's that bad?" Brick wondered if this robot just fluked its way to winning, Butch and the blue children letting the leaders discuss negotiations from here on.

"Yes, it's really bad. We need you boys to help us," she assured that this was a problem too big for the powerpuffs to handle alone.

"Why should we help? You haven't told us that yet," Brick requested a good reason why the ruffs should help. It didn't show, but he was very grateful to Blossom for saving his brother's life. He was happy to know she could put violence aside if one of them was going to die, but no matter what, it didn't matter to his opinion if they wasted their time fighting a pathetic robot. The pink puff slammed her hand on the table.

"Because it's a robot! That's the problem, Brick! That means someone made it and can make more... maybe thousands of them! If we die, you'll never get the chance to win a fight against us," Blossom was glaring at her counterpart, her pink eyes affixed on his blazing red eyes. Brick leaned back, looking to his brothers.

"Alright… we'll help," Brick nodded. He had agreed to extend his help to hunting the mechanical menace. Boomer had a deep smile over this. Butch grinned, the tension in the room immediately fading with the agreed cooperation between the two families, even if the situation seemed to cause forced teamwork.

"So what do you need us to do?" Boomer quirked. He was more curious where Buttercup was, assuming she was upstairs. That or she didn't want any hand in this.

"We need a piece of it so the professor can find out why we can't hurt it," Bubbles exclaimed what Butch and Blossom had already heard before, though one look out the window showed that the sun was beginning to set. Brick got up, stretching.

"Fine. Come on, Bloss, let's get to hunting," Brick was ready to go out now that his stomach was full. The sooner this was over with, the better.

"So who's going where, then?" Boomer wanted to know who he was going to be partnered up with, thinking if they split up to search it'd be easier to find the robot that way. Though if he wasn't going to be with his blue counterpart, he would be saddened to know this, since they were the most passive of both families.

"Butch and Bubbles can go search the east end of town. Brick and I will go to the north part, and Boomer… I guess since Buttercup's not awake, you can go check out the storage facility and see if you can find any clues. When she's ready to go, we'll get everyone partnered up with their counterparts. Just remember, everyone, we're only after any piece we can get off the robot. Nothing more," Blossom described her plan out. Butch and Brick didn't like being ordered around by her, but she was being logical. The blonde ruff didn't feel comfortable being alone. He felt bubbles pat his back.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine," Bubbles assured. He smiled back at her. Now that everything was set, the five super powered children flew off, leaving various streaks of light behind them. Blossom knew the professor had plans to talk with Buttercup later and catching her up to speed on the matters. Boomer had to be sent off alone, due to how injured his hands were they thought it'd be best for him to do the investigating.

"Well, at least it all worked out," Butch laughed while casually flying. He seemed a lot better than earlier. His depression had worn off, somewhat, but he still hungered for revenge against the machine, even if the plan was only to steal one part of it. If the chance arose to smash it into shrapnel, the ruffs were most likely to take it.

"Yeah… we'll probably need your special ability to help break a piece off," Bubbles said. Butch quirked an eyebrow, looking at her confusedly.

"Special ability? What like Blossom's ice lungs?" he questioned. She looked annoyed at how wrong he was on the name of her sister's ability.

"It's ice breath. Oh, please don't tell me…" she got cut off mid-sentence just after correcting him.

"Yeah. Me and my brothers don't have any special tricks like that," Butch proudly declared. Bubbles wondered how the powerpuffs had stalemates with the rowdyruffs so often then if all they had were their normal attacks and powers. It went to show how strong the guys could be.

"Well… maybe we could do some training sometime and try to find out everyone's abilities. But for now, we should focus on the mission," the blue puff groaned, imagining this. Training any of the rowdyruffs sounded horrible and agonizing in itself. She was pondering on how to break a piece of the robot off.

Blossom was more nervous and uncomfortable to be flying alone with the rowdyruff leader. She was terrified to encounter the robot again. She looked to the boy beside her, thinking maybe they should talk to try and get their minds off it.

"Did you really decide to help us because of what I said?" the orange haired girl had to ask, if beating the powerpuff girls was really a strong motivation to them, and if so, then this partnership was built on nothing but reluctant teamwork.

"No. Not just because of that," Brick responded, not bothering to look back at her as they were heading to another part of Townsville. Blossom could never get him to answer as to why else he agreed, which worried her. All she could do was put her faith in him and hope that they can take a part of the robot. If they find it, they just had to work together and they will be fine. She wanted to believe this, but she knew she couldn't drop her guard, in case the rowdyruffs were setting up some very elaborate trap.


	4. Robot Hunt

Boomer had arrived to the storage facility in a short time. The place was empty. He couldn't see any sign of any robots. He saw the damage though, the destroyed road, the building missing part of it from where Blossom had been smashed into it and a good few of the storage facilities that were torn open. He approached the first one, trying to be careful but observant for clues. He couldn't see anything, reaching up and grabbing a string that was dangling in the air and pulling, hearing the light flick on. This was a cheap storage unit. The closest thing there was to lights were cheap ones dangling from their wires.

"Wow. I thought my room was messy," Boomer said, seeing all the junk filling the storage unit. Not much was touched for a good while. He decided to move onto the next one. When he turned the lights on, he could tell the robots had searched more thoroughly through this one. It was a mess, boxes were ripped open and coating the floor. Any furniture that had been stored away in here had been crushed into nothing. There was one thing that drew his attention.

"Aw. Hey there, little guy," the blonde ruff happily greeted what he saw on top of a safe. There was a small grey kitten. It didn't look more than a few months old. The safe it rested upon had been broke open. The door of it that was meant to protect it from everyone without the key had been ripped off and lying nearby. Boomer picked the cat up off the safe. It seemed content for being a wild animal.

"Did you see what the robots stole?" he joked, petting the kitten. It enjoyed being stroked by him. Boomer had a weak spot for animals. His brothers didn't mind some pets, though if they were annoying, they rarely tolerated them. The kitten let out a meow. At times like this, he wished he spoke cat.

"Go on little guy. I have to keep searching," Boomer hummed, resting the kitten down, letting it run off so he could continue searching. The blonde ruff could see some remaining contents to the safe. There was some jewelry he brushed aside, and under them were were some papers concealed within a small folder, but when he opened them to view them, they all turned out to be some letters to a war soldier.

"I feel bad for the owner of this unit," Boomer had to admit. Whoever owned this unit from what he could gather was just a regular soldier who had served their time in the military. No one deserved to have their positions robbed like this. So far his search was turning up nothing. The only thing he found that was useful in the storage unit was the odd pattern on the side and the dismantled door of the safe. He couldn't imagine his brother dueling one of these machines. He just hoped that everyone else was safe while hunting. He suddenly heard something crumple over, noticing a small stack of boxes knocked over.

"Hey!" Boomer shouted, seeing what had done it. However the cat didn't do it. He saw one of the smaller robots Butch and Blossom had fought. Its tiny green bulb body and four legs looked disturbing to the blue ruff. It attempted to escape, but he managed to dive at it, flopping onto his stomach as he caught it.

"Got'cha!" he smirked, feeling proud. He had his hand wrapped around all four legs of it, making sure it wouldn't try anything sneaky. It didn't seem threatening, but he assumed this was a good thing anyway. A robot was a robot, even if it wasn't worth examining. Maybe it had something else they could use it for. Boomer left to return back to the Utonium household.

Brick and Blossom had arrived to the part of town they had decided to search. Night had set in, and the streetlights below them as they flew were the main illumination. The rowdyruff leader was wondering how they could look for the robot in this dark state, but he assumed that hearing townsfolk screaming in terror would be a good sign.

"So, Bloss. You ever think our fights'll have a winner?" Brick decided to start up conversation with the only topic he had on mind. The powerpuff leader looked to him, unsure how to respond to that. The question itself seemed really dumb, but one that had been pondered by both families entirely.

"If someone did win the fights, what would happen?" Blossom answered his question with another, trying to mess with him mentally. It seemed to annoy her counterpart, who hated when she acted smarter with him. It was one of the many things she used to tease him with during conversations before fights. It felt weird for him to not be attempting to hit her right now.

"Well, long story short, when me and my brothers win, we're gonna have a big party to celebrate!" Brick answered, nothing unexpected, seeing his counterpart roll her eyes.

"And then what?" she requested him to continue.

"Then a big crime spree to take over Townsville," he glared, seeing that playful smirk on her that annoyed him immensely.

"And after that?" Blossom hummed. Suddenly she crashed into him mid-flight, just after he stopped. That actually seemed to stump him. He pondered on that.

"…I guess… there'd be nothing left to do," Brick admitted. Maybe he needed to have a family meeting sometime to discuss what their priorities were after they beat the puffs. Blossom felt the atmosphere become awkward. He wasn't happy to realize the truth of the matter. If she had to pick between how she wanted him to act, she preferred the snarky and arrogant Brick. Thinking that alone made her shudder.

"When me and my sisters beat you, we're going to just toss you and your brothers in a cell," Blossom continued the conversation while they scanned the area. They seemed to be flying above a park. It looked nice from where they were. The grass seemed to almost sparkle with drips of water on it from a light drizzle that had passed by earlier.

"Yet you know we'll just break right back out in less than a day," Brick stated. Blossom sighed, nodding. When they both thought of it, whichever family did win, these stalemates were not going to get much done before their counterparts are recovered and ready to brawl once more.

"It'd still give Townsville a day with one less thing to worry about. You and your brothers won't ever win since none of you have unique abilities," the orange haired girl explained the way they were talking so casually about their fights. She didn't know how to feel about it. Brick gained a grin.

"The truth is… I do have a special ability. Just… it's not that good to use. In fact, it kind of sucks," the red rowdyruff claimed. Blossom initially wanted to call him out presuming it to be a lie just for him to show off, but she knew he wasn't the type to insult one of his own powers. He would brag about it all day how amazing it was if he had one at all. Just after though, the two both stopped when they heard the sounds of screaming.

"That's our signal," Blossom said. They quickly flew to where they heard it from. They weren't that far from where the screaming had come from. They arrived in less than a minute, in another part of the very park they were above, both of them landing on the ground to see a few people running away, not caring about the rowdyruff they passed by. It seemed to be mostly couples that had been out here. This part of the park looked more romantic with a fountain in the center and fields of flowers being planted in various sections.

"I think I'm gonna puke," Brick gagged from seeing this place, whose beauty seemed to repel him. They quickly saw the robot. Surely enough, it wasn't the same one Blossom and Butch had fought before. This robot was blue in colour with gold painted joints attached. Its limbs had two pincer like hands, and it was slimmer in build. Its legs were the only slightly bulky thing on it, and the head of the robot had three red lights.

"What is that thing supposed to be? A tin can on steroids?" Brick laughed. The robot seemed to be focused on digging up a couple yards away from the middle area of the park. It had already torn up a big tree from the ground. The red ruff knew to be careful, thinking it was time to start the fight.

"Brick, we need a plan. Maybe if I use my-" Blossom couldn't continue, seeing him pick up a wooden bench from nearby and chuck it at the machine, directly hitting it. They heard it crash and break upon impact, pieces of wood flying everywhere. The robot turned around, its red eyes glowing focusing on them.

"Sorry, Bloss. I got bored," Brick apologized, noticing the blazing rage in her eyes that he had seen a hundred times before, and will probably see another hundred times in the next month or so. They both knew they only had to break a piece off the mechanical menace, and not destroy it. The sooner they got a part of it, the better. The robot stomped toward them, appearing more aggressive than the last one. Its legs looked like the most armored part about it. Brick fired a ray of heat vision at it, hitting the enemy in the chest. His attack did nothing but heat up the material it was made of.

"That's an immune robot, alright. Now let's gouge out its face!" Brick laughed. Blossom wished she had been able to make a plan for this. The robot swung its pincer hands overhead toward them. The super powered children quickly separated, seeing it smash into the ground. It had dug its pincers in and ripped out the earth, turning around and throwing the slab at Brick, sending him flying back first into a tree. He groaned, sliding down it.

Blossom exhaled a freezing ice breath from above, beginning to freeze the area around the robot. She saw it crouch briefly before it jumped at her. It horrified her to see one of its three bright red eyes so close to her. The robot was so much more reactive compared to the last one. It grabbed her with one of its pincer hands before landing back on the ground, cracking the area beneath it, as it slammed her into the dirt.

"Let… me… go!" Blossom coughed. It was crushing her down to the ground, probably in an attempt to break her bones to dust. She was trying to break out of its grip, but she couldn't. She felt weaker, like something was suppressing her strength. Before the mechanical menace could try to harm her. Brick had darted from behind with a red streak of light behind him, slamming shoulder first into the robot, making it let go of his counterpart while sending it stumbling backwards down a hill.

"Are you alright?" Brick asked while rushing to Blossom's side, helping her get off the ground. She coughed, feeling a lot better already, but seeing a few new scratches on her arms.

"Be careful. This robots a lot smarter and more agile than the last one," she claimed. Brick looked concerned, knowing that the robot wasn't anywhere near done with them and they had no idea how they were going to break a piece off of it.

"We need a combo attack. Okay, here's what we'll do," Blossom started, trying to explain as quickly as she could. Maybe their powers and strengths combined would be more effective than alone. They saw the robot climbing back up the hill that it had been knocked over, boiling in anger. They watched as its metal armor began shrinking and its claws seemed to change to a smaller size. It looked thinner now. The robot charged at them, its feet stomping the ground.

"Now!" Brick grinned, jumping up. His arms were covered in red shields from his energy projection. The robot attempted to punch at him, but they collided fists. Both of them retracted from the strong collisions. They kept punching and punching, their attacks just bouncing off one another. Blossom meanwhile was doing her best to freeze the ground beneath them, turning it into an ice rink. Brick was just buying time. After their flurry of punches ended, the robot grabbed him by the leg.

"Oh dang… whoa!" Brick got slung over head, pressing him onto the icy ground. He moaned in pain, feeling like his entire body had been rattled from that. The robot didn't get the opportunity to do anything else before Blossom quickly came by, sliding on the ice, grabbing Brick by his arm and pulling him free from its grip.

"Here we go!" Blossom laughed. The robot was in the middle of the ice rink now, and the two kids were sliding around the ice. It was having trouble focusing on which target to lock on. Brick felt embarrassed to be ice skating. The machine attempted to swing at the pink powerpuff, but she ducked underneath its attack. It couldn't run along the ice without the risk of slipping, either. The robot began to switch back to its more bulky form.

"Now!" Brick grabbed Blossom's hands before spinning around, throwing her with brute strength at the robot. She crashed into it, delivering her strongest kick to its arm, driving its pincer like hand into the machines lower body. Immediately after she bounced off, Brick punched the pincer as well, sending it deeper. They had made the robot stab itself with its own weapon. The metal menace had to put some effort into ripping its own pincer out. They saw three small shards of metal fall out from its wound.

Blossom fired a ray of heat vision into the opening, blasting the machines insides. It was surprisingly effective, as the robot turned around and quickly began to flee like it had suddenly become afraid of them.

"Get back here!" Brick shouted wanting to kill it while they had the chance, but Blossom stopped him.

"Brick! We got what we wanted. We don't want to chase it down. It might not be alone," the orange haired girl declared that it was too dangerous to chase down. She knew these robots had the ability to summon other robots to their aid, and she didn't want to go chasing it down and wandering into a trap. The red ruff looked angry, letting out a huff of irritation. He walked over and grabbed the fallen pieces of shrapnel, pocketing them.

"Please don't be mad. You have to understand, we can't go past our limit," Blossom requested for her counterpart to calm down. They had put all their effort into just making the robot injure itself. He growled, turning around before poking her chest.

"What kind of leader does that?! Chickens out and admits their limits? You think you'll ever get anywhere like that? What kind of idiot doesn't push their limits and get better!?" Brick insulted her. He hated that mindset more than anything, the type that was afraid to risk themselves to get stronger. The puffs trained hard, but they never seemed to risk it in battles with the ruffs, always holding back to try and save some energy, finding some perfect balance between physical attacks and energy use. She was stunned by his sudden outburst, having to take a moment to process it.

"I'm trying to protect you! I want to keep everyone safe! I don't want to go back to my house and tell your brothers that you got killed, just because we ran into a trap, even after we already got a part of the robot," Blossom retorted. She never wanted to do that, unsure if she could live with herself if she had to deliver bad news to either family about the death of one of them. That robot could have done a lot worse if they hadn't done what they did together. Brick was about to respond, but he bit his tongue. She was visibly upset.

"I'm scared, Brick. We aren't fighting just for ourselves. We're fighting for our brothers and sisters and our dads," Blossom sniffled, burying her face in her hands. Imagining any of her family getting hurt badly was a weak point for her. Just thinking on it hurt her a lot. She was afraid of the robots, they were able to fight them with ease. The argument had not helped calm her nerves, not at all. Brick sighed, knowing for sure he had started this. He had to cheer her up. Blossom suddenly felt his arms wrap around her. She raised her head slightly, seeing him. She never saw him with that apologetic expression on his face.

"I'm sorry. I'm just not used to working with people I don't like. I don't know how this is going to work. If the robots don't kill us, we might kill each other," Brick apologized, wiping her cheek, seeing some of the tears pouring from those cherry pink eyes.

"You're right about me being afraid of my limits… holding back won't get anything done, but we still have to be smart about this…" Blossom admitted her cowardice, but at the same time she was enjoying his embrace. She didn't know why. And she had no intentions of confessing it.

"I'll make sure to watch out for your sisters if you keep watching out for my brothers," Brick offered. Seeing his grin made her feel silly for the lightness of the moment.

"I will," she nodded, agreeing to make sure to take care of his brothers as long as he took care of her sisters.

"Thanks babe," Brick laughed. Blossom glared at him, breaking their embrace.

"Don't call me babe!" she growled, a red blush forming on her cheeks.

"Why not, babe? It suits ya," he snickered. She was glad he was trying to cheer her up, but she wasn't going to tolerate names like that.

"Let's go give the professor the part we got from the robot," Blossom said, the two flying off, leaving pink and red streaks of light behind them. With the metal shards of the robot acquired, hopefully the professor could examine them and find a way for them to beat the robots.


	5. Sneaking Out

It didn't take long for Brick and Blossom to get back to the powerpuffs' home. When they entered inside, they saw Butch, who was long asleep on the couch in the living room. It was starting to get pretty late, so the two leaders decided against waking him. They headed straight for the basement to give the professor the metal shards they had taken from the robot. When they got to the basement, they saw Buttercup, Bubbles and Boomer along with the professor. They seemed to be staring at something.

"Glad you two decided to show up," Buttercup greeted them, though still angry at the pink puff for their disagreement earlier that day. Their father had told the green puff everything, and surprisingly she didn't verbally denounce the ruffs or fight the decision in rebuttal.

"We got some metal from one of the robots," Brick said, presenting the three pieces of shrapnel he had gotten. The professor came over and took them.

"Great work! Now we can hopefully discover what makes the robots so tough," he congratulated them, glad his daughter and her counterpart hadn't failed. He went over to begin, getting everything prepared so he could start the examination on the material.

"How did your searches go?" Blossom asked from Bubbles and her blue counterpart, when she saw what they were looking at. It was the tiny green robot Boomer had captured. It was trapped within a small glass chamber, appearing to be tapping against the glass with one of its four legs, but it wasn't strong enough to break it.

"Me and Butch turned up nothing, but Boomer caught one of the robots!" Bubbles excitedly said. Boomed rubbed the back of his head, feeling embarrassed by how cheerful she was just for that.

"It was nothing. I just got lucky and found it," the blue rowdyruff chuckled. Buttercup kept her focus on the robot. She didn't have anything to add to the conversation. Blossom though wanted to apologize to her when given the chance so she could get everything cleared up amongst them.

"Great work, bro," Brick high fived him. Blossom rolled her eyes. She hated to be the bearer of bad news on the matter, but she had to tell them before they decided to rob another pizza delivery boy for free food as celebration.

"Sorry, Boomer, but these robots aren't resistant at all. It's worthless, really," Blossom apologized, but Butch was able to dispatch five of the tiny robots alone. They weren't a remote threat to them. They seemed more like drones that the bigger robots summoned to their beck and call.

"Oh…" Boomer looked half disappointed, feeling a little silly for how proud he had been ever since he apprehended the machine.

"It's not a complete waste. It could help us track the piles of scrap easier," Buttercup commented, thinking that maybe they could be useful for tracking, though if the robot broke out of the glass chamber, it was going to be stomped on like the practical metal cockroach it was.

"That's a good point. We did see the robots using antenna to call them," the orange haired girl smiled, glad her green sister seemed so calm when it came to the idea of working with the ruffs. She wondered if their fight had any hand in the decision. Bubbles seemed all too happy with the idea.

"You guys can spend, the night if you want," the blonde girl offered, gaining the attention of her sisters.

"No way. Just because we're teamed up doesn't mean I'm going to sleep in the same house as them," Buttercup glared. Her trust did have limits. She didn't want anything odd to happen in her sleep. Blossom had to admit that much, despite her and Brick's previous conversation. She didn't have complete faith in the ruffs, not yet anyhow.

"Butch already crashed on your couch," Brick reminded them. Even if Bubbles was just being friendly, he could see how unsure the siblings were on the decision. Professor Utonium didn't pay any attention, more focused on examining the metal shards, but it was going to take some time.

"I guess it'll be alright. Just stay downstairs, please," Blossom granted them permission to sleep in their living room. But if she caught any of them upstairs near their bedroom door, they were going to be thrown outside.

"Thanks a lot," Boomer thanked the puffs. He was probably the most grateful of the ruffs, or the only one who would voice his opinions without a second thought around the powerpuff girls. It was eerie how easily he warmed up to them. Brick didn't care, whatever made working together easier for any of them was welcomed.

"Can you help me find the extra blankets?" Bubbles asked Boomer. He nodded, happy to help her out. They both headed back upstairs to go find the spare covers to make sure the ruffs could sleep comfortably tonight. Brick didn't pay much mind to those two.

"So professor, how long 'til you can tell us what that junks made of?" the red rowdyruff requested to Professor Utonium, whose eyes were glued to the microscope. He had the metal pieces in a small glass slide. He barely had just started.

"I'd appreciate some patience, Brick, but I don't know. I plan to stay up all night to find out," the professor assured. He wasn't going to rest until he found a way to help the super powered kids find the key to the robots' defences. So far the only thing that could hurt robots were their own material, and he had written a mental note of this.

"Fine, fine… I'm going to go raid the fridge," Brick yawned. He was hungry again and wanted to get something to eat. Blossom sighed, just letting him go to grab a bite to eat so she could have a moment of privacy with her green sister. She approached her sibling, thinking their creator would be too busy running his tests to hear them.

"Buttercup, I need to apologize," Blossom started. Buttercup looked at her. She didn't show much emotion across her face but clearly something was on her mind. The pink puff didn't blame her, everyone was under a great deal of stress, and the pressure just seemed to keep mounting. Squabbling with each other wasn't going to get anything done, but it was probably inevitable.

"For what?" the raven haired girl asked. She cared about her sisters as much as they cared for her. She had a special bond with Professor Utonium especially. Blossom saw the robot in the glass prison crumple over like it gave up.

"For hitting you when you realized I brought Butch," she reminded, tapping on the glass that separated them from the tiny drone. It didn't respond, though it clearly wasn't deactivated. Maybe its power was running low. That was something Blossom wanted to check out if she could. Whatever these machines ran off of was able to fuel them for extra-long periods of time. Buttercup shook her head.

"I don't care anymore about it," Buttercup claimed. She had minimal care over the matter of their disagreement. Her orange haired sister was growing concerned, but she was glad she accepted the apology nonetheless.

"You look distracted. What happened?" Blossom queried what was distracting her. The green powerpuff took a second to consider responding. Whatever it was bothering her clearly was important.

"When the professor told me what you agreed to, I got angry because you did it without talking to me…" Buttercup stated. The powerpuff leader understood her frustration. It was rude to make the agreement without everyone present. It was practically saying that they didn't care for an opinion, if one family member didn't have a hand in a huge decision. She didn't get a chance to say anything though.

"But when I saw all three of them and how happy Bubbles was… I felt relaxed. I don't like knowing that I'm getting comfortable around the ruffs," Buttercup finished. Her main problem appeared to be still trusting the rowdyruffs to an extent. Blossom easily figured out why. It was because they were their enemies, and were probably going to remain enemies once again after they finished eliminating the robotic threat.

"We can trust the boys for now, Buttercup. I'm going to go start getting ready for bed," Blossom assured everything was fine. Buttercup nodded, letting her pink sister leave the basement before she decided to head upstairs as well to give her father peace. As she left, she cast a quick gaze at the glass chamber, the tiny robot still having not moved. She just wanted to double check, wondering if she was beginning to become paranoid. She continued up the steps.

Everyone minded their own business from there on. That night, Brick had fallen asleep briefly after consuming the first thing he could find from the refrigerator, which had unfortunately been a special sandwich the professor made yesterday. Blossom had cleaned herself up before going to bed herself. Bubbles had spent an extra few hours with Boomer talking and playing with him, briefly after helping him get his brothers comfortable for the night to make sure they wouldn't get cold. Otherwise, everyone in the Utonium household was asleep, aside from the professor tirelessly working hard in his lab.

Around three in the morning, someone was heading downstairs, the lights in the house all being off. Buttercup was going for the front door, having something planned to do tonight. She looked at the living room as she passed by, seeing Butch still on the couch, Brick across from him and Boomer with the misfortune to be in the floor. He looked like he was having a nice dream, however, judging by the smile on his face and the peaceful expression. Buttercup opened the door and left, closing it gently behind her. Just after though, Butch opened one of his eyes getting up from the couch.

"Good thing I fell asleep early…" Butch thought. He snuck over to the door, looking through the eyehole to see Buttercup flying off to the south, leaving a light green streak of light behind her. He opened the door and closed it behind him before following, planning to stay high up in the night clouds to stay hidden. He wanted to make sure she was alright. After all, she was his counterpart, and they were teamed together for that.

Buttercup flew for a while through the night, the sky full of stars and the moon in the center, shining light down upon them. It was being obscured partially by the clouds. It looked almost like a fishing bobber drifting along a river in a sense. The green powerpuff loved the night atmosphere. Darkness was a preferred thing to her. It was easier to fight bad guys because of the vision restriction, but her vision worked even better in the darkness. Buttercup was not aware even once that she was being followed, as she drifted on forward, but she was getting some feeling something was off. The south part of Townsville was more industrial than the rest of the city. There were mostly factories here which were meant to be producing various things, but there were a good few that were abandoned, waiting to be put back to use.

"Here I am…" Buttercup said, floating above one of the factories. It showed its age, looking like it had been failing to withstand the test of time. Random sheets of the metal that were on the building were missing, and the smoke stack looked ready to collapse at a moment's notice.

"You mean here we are," Butch corrected, seeing his counterpart turn around. Buttercup knew something was feeling weird on the flight here. She growled at him.

"I'd have preferred to have a robot stalking me," Buttercup said, seeing the green ruff. The irritated look on her face alone was enough to show her demand to know why he did this.

"Boy, that's cold, BC. We're partners, after all," Butch reminded, trying to joke at the same time. He looked at the decaying factory as they landed. He felt wide awake now, and it wasn't that hard to follow the powerpuff girl, since she seemed to have a slower pace tonight. She sighed in frustration.

"So what are you doing here?" he asked.

"While you were all out earlier today, I called the mayor up and asked him if there were any strange reports on robots from the police departments," Buttercup explained what she had done. All the times the puffs had spent saving the mayor of Townsville had finally come in handy, having left them a considerably useful connection for information if required. The green puff cracked her knuckles.

"There was a report about one in this area…" she pointed out. There should be a robot somewhere in this area of Townsville. She approached the best looking entrance she could use to get inside, which was a hole in the wall from where the material had rotted away and crumpled.

"Let's go smash it then," Butch grinned, eager to try and destroy a robot, aware that she wouldn't have any other reason to come out. They had to investigate what the robot was doing. Even if it was a horrible idea to be alone, the ruff was glad to accompany her.

"Fine, but make sure you don't not get in my way," Buttercup warned him.

"I've got your back," he nodded, as long as she didn't get in his way either. They both entered the abandoned factory. It certainly looked just as bad inside as it did outside. The machines that used to function were long removed. The only thing left were the assembly lines that were covered in layers of dust and spider webs beneath them.

"You ever wonder what these robots are doing?" Butch tried to start conversation, having minimal care for the element of surprise. They went into this factory, assuming a robot might be in hiding here, but so far they hadn't found anything. Buttercup didn't understand the question entirely as she looked into one of the many piles of abandoned scrap that this factory used to use as a material.

"What do you mean? They're just robots. They cause mayhem under the orders of whoever made them," the green powerpuff retorted. Robots were robots. They were just damaging the city a tad and being scared off by the super powered children.

"No, I mean… me and Blossom, when we found that first one, it was looking for something in the storage units, and when Brick and her got those metal pieces, they said the robot was digging in a park," Butch elaborated what his theory was, when he said it like that the pattern was quite obvious. Buttercup had to stop in place, rubbing her head.

"They're always looking for something. I can't believe you figured that before I did," she admitted, frustrated with herself.

"Yeah, but what could robots want? What could be in a storage unit and the ground?" he had to wonder aloud. The robots weren't searching randomly. In fact, he assumed the robots had found what they were looking for each time. None of their siblings ever made any notes of seeing the machines holding anything, but the robots always either fled or made them have to flee.

"I'm guessing… rocks?" Buttercup joked as they were arriving more toward the centre. She noticed something odd, though. One of the big tiles on the floor were loose like it had been moved before. She lifted it up, unveiling a deep hole.

"Wow… someone's been digging here," she said. Butch peeked into the hole, doubting time could do this much damage. Buttercup heard a creaking from the ceiling, like metal bending. She quickly grabbed Butch and jumped out of the way. They saw something huge fall down and land onto the ground, kicking up the coats of dust from the area.

"Whoa!" Butch got caught in surprise. He wondered how his counterpart saw that well before him. They saw what had fallen from the ceiling. It was a machine alright, and it had a red sphere colored body with gold paint around it. The machine had uncountable tentacles, maybe up to thirty, the ends of them being bulb shaped. Some of them were open, revealing threatening looking sharp metal. Butch felt shivers up his spine, remembering how the first robot almost ate him like that.

"Thanks," the rowdyruff thanked her in relief as they got ready.

"You're watching my back, I'll watch yours," Buttercup reminded him that they were partners. No matter how much she hated the idea of that, or herself for beginning to trust the ruffs. She had no choice but to work with him or perish to the machine.


	6. Progress

Buttercup and Butch were in the rundown factory, staring at the machine before them. Seeing its many tentacles was intimidating. One wrong move from them and it might cost a limb.

"What's the goal here, Buttercup?" Butch had to ask, while the robot seemed to be waiting for them to make the first move. He wanted to know what the point of this was. Smashing a robot was good for one, but if they couldn't, then this was nothing more than a waste of time, and risking their own lives on it was not worth it.

"It's holding something in one of those tentacles. Try and get it," Buttercup pointed out one of the tons of tentacles that was closed, clearly holding something. Their earlier theory was right. The machines were always looking for something. Whatever it was they wanted, they had indeed been finding so far. The green ruff nodded, taking out one tentacle seemed a lot easier than breaking the metal ball itself. They felt the floor beneath them begin to rumble. They both jumped aside, seeing a few of the robot's tentacles rip out from beneath them.

"Dang! That thing almost took my foot off!" Butch growled. The tentacles were able to come out of the ground at any time, which didn't help their stress. The two flew at it, leaving trails of green lights behind them, and just like that, almost every tentacle seemed to move simultaneously, multiple attempting to attack Buttercup. She flew between two of them before they could get their sharp parts on her. Another popped up ahead of her, opening wide and firing three big balls of fire.

The green powerpuff grinned, creating two shields of her energy projection around her hands. She punched one of the blazing balls away before smashing the next one downward, watching them explode on contact with the areas of the factory they hit. Buttercup caught the last burning ball, growling with the effort it took. She threw it straight back at the machine fighting them. Three of the tentacles flew in front and caught the fire ball. It exploded on contact, destroying those three tentacles instantly as they crumpled to the ground, burnt.

"I hate this thing!" Butch shouted, busy trying to avoid getting hit by about five tentacles that were chasing him through the air. He spun aside, dodging one from the side and kicking it away. One almost chomped him, but he caught it before it could bite him. He threw it aside, making the tentacle bite another one, cutting it off. This robot seemed to be doing more damage to itself than they were doing to it. The green ruff had to keep flying, unable to escape constantly.

Buttercup fired her heat vision, blasting the sphere machine itself. There was no effect, though. It only angered it, making another tentacle pop out of the ground to attempt to bite her. She pried the bulb shaped tentacle apart, preventing it from closing, and then blasted its inside with her heat vision. This time it was effective, causing it to fall over. The tentacles weren't as resistant as the robot itself.

"Keep them distracted!" Buttercup shouted.

"Not like I have a choice here!" Butch reminded. Either way the distraction was already being made. He had the majority of the attention on him, but Buttercup wanted whatever this robot was holding in that one tentacle directly above its head. She tried to rush at it quickly, tackling the bulb at the end of the tentacle, attempting to pry it open to retrieve it. Whatever was inside, it clearly held a great importance to the machines.

"Come on, open up!" Buttercup gritted her teeth. She couldn't force it open. Butch however had an idea, seeing a few of the tentacles about to attempt to attack her. He darted behind her and punched one tentacle, making them focus on him with nearly all the tentacles following the green rowdyruff. He began to fly circles around the sphere robot that controlled them. He went around over and under. His green counterpart just watched until all of the tentacles stopped abruptly. The robot was trapped in its own weapons, having tied itself up on accident. Butch landed on the ground beside it before he stomped on the ground, damaging it before he kicked the robot, toppling it over onto its side.

"Wow… that was some quick thinking," Buttercup had to admit that she was impressed. She landed beside him, though that tentacle she had been trying to pry open landed near them, still shut tight.

"Cut me some slack, BC. I'm not as dumb as Boomer," the spiky haired boy requested. Buttercup rolled her eyes. She was happy they disabled the robot, but this wasn't much of a win. She was worried that the robot was already calling for help silently while they tried to find out what it wanted here in the first place.

"Just come help me get this open," she requested. He came over, and they both grabbed parts of the tentacle and pulled hard. It took great effort, but together they did it. Upon opening the tentacle, they saw a black chunk of rock fall out of it. They both only stared at it, feeling a confused anger welling in themselves.

"…is that coal?" Butch broke the silence. Did they really just waste their time fighting for a hunk of fire fuel?

"I don't think so. There'd be hundreds of places to get coal easier," Buttercup claimed. She hoped she was right about it not being coal, because if it was, these robots were the most inconvenient mining tool in existence. Coal was not a hard thing to find. She picked up the black rock. It was jagged and about as big as her hand. Suddenly the tentacle they had stolen it from was trying to move, reaching toward her.

"Hey! Knock it off!" Butch growled, stomping on it, forcing it to the ground. He grabbed the tentacle, dragging it to the big tied up robot and shoving it into the mess, adding another knot to the already constricted machine.

"Thanks, Butch," Buttercup half-heartedly thanked him for protecting her. She was examining the rock. It didn't seem odd, but the spherical robot moved, unable to get up but putting a lot of its strength to it, almost like it had become agitated.

"You want this?" the raven haired girl asked, holding it up high. They heard the sound of its tentacles straining to move as if it were becoming even more and more desperate, the longer that black rock was out of its possession.

"Try not to make it angrier. I don't feel like flying through a barrage again," Butch requested tiredly. Buttercup understood, pocketing what they stole. There was a bigger plus side, if the professor ever needed more metal to examine, they could come here and forcibly remove it, since they had a captive robot, but it was not safe to move it anywhere near the family. The two of them left to get out of the abandoned factory. Once outside, they could see that the clouds had mostly cleared, unveiling the moon high in the sky. Only a few hours and it will be replaced by the sun soon enough.

"Great work in there, Butterbabe," Butch applauded, trying to congratulate her for their great work in there. She gained a cocky smile, bathing in the minor praise. She enjoyed her ego polishing a lot, though had a tendency to let it get to her head on accident.

"Thanks Butch… wait, what'd you call me?!" she demanded, only just realizing what he said to set her off, though he got an evil grin.

"What? Butterbabe?" Butch laughed before being tackled by Buttercup, being pinned down on his back with his green counterpart on top of him. The sound of laughter being mixed with punches echoed through the night. It was hilarious to him, if calling her by that name to tease her made her this angry. Butch was going to get a lot of fun out of it, and every bruise was what he saw as worth it.

Later in the morning at the Utonium household, Blossom was making her way downstairs, wearing a pink nightgown. The living room was empty now. It confused her since when she woke up she couldn't find either of her sisters, and now it looked like the ruffs were all gone. She wondered if she had slept through something, though soon enough she heard conversing from the basement. She headed down to see what was going on.

"Good morning every… one?" Blossom greeted. Everyone was down here, though their attention were affixed on the two sitting on the counter. The professor was trying to treat their injuries. Butch and Buttercup had gained quite a few new bruises and cuts.

"What happened?" the powerpuff leader asked. For what it was worth, The green children looked happy nonetheless.

"My idiot brother thought it'd be a good idea to go robot hunting in the middle of the night…" Brick explained. Butch looked proud for that fact. Even if his leader was trying his best to scold him, it just seemed to not go through his thick skull.

"Buttercup caught him trying to leave and decided to follow," Bubbles continued from what they could gather. This seemed like one person being talked into another's bad decision.

"Yeah! And we won!" Butch reminded. Buttercup stayed quiet. The green ruff was taking the blame for the blind hunting, since he had described that it was him who wanted to go out and hunt a robot out of boredom, and that he had talked his counterpart into coming along. The green powerpuff girl had no clue why her counterpart was taking the blame for it, but maybe he felt guilty over something. But she didn't care. The two didn't even admit that their injuries mostly came from fighting each other.

"Well, at least you're both safe," Boomer was happy with their survival alone. Blossom rubbed her head, trying to process the bad idea. What's done is done. No point in continuing to dwell on it.

"We did get an odd rock from the robot. We figured out that's what they were after," Buttercup chimed in, pointing out the black rock held within a small glass tube. They heard that familiar tapping noise, seeing the tiny robot they had captured. It was active once more. That rock was a motivator for these machines, that much was obvious.

"I've tried examining the metal. Its refining process had something extra added into it, that I can't seem to identify," the professor said while putting away the first aid kit. All that time he spent researching the metal pieces that his children and their enemies worked hard to gather turned out to be a big waste of time.

"Thanks for trying anyway, professor. And you two, please refrain from going and fighting robots alone without checking with me and Brick first," Blossom requested. Buttercup didn't respond, but Butch muttered out an annoyed agreement. Bubbles was looking at the tiny robot that was trying desperately to get out of the glass chamber. It was now completely bashing the glass with its bulb-like body.

"I have an idea," the blonde girl suddenly spoke up.

"is it a good one?" Brick asked if it was a dumb idea. He wasn't going to even entertain it as a joke. Waking up much earlier than he was used to affected his mood badly. His brothers didn't seem to mind the early morning, though the red ruff saw an angry glare from his counterpart.

"Go ahead, Bubbles," Blossom insisted for her to continue.

"What if we found out where the robots go with this one?" Bubbles pointed to the trapped one that seemed to be eager to get out. She wanted to save them any trouble of cleaning broken glass as well.

"You mean like a tracking device?" the professor saw his blonde daughter nod.

"That's a great idea!" Boomer agreed. Finding out where these robots were coming from or going to was great. All they had to do was stick something onto the drone, and it will hopefully be a great help to know the location of the base, and maybe find out who the machines' creators were.

"Yeah, it's a good idea if that robot goes where we want it to go," Buttercup reminded them. This drone could understand them for all they knew. She didn't want to waste half a day on a wild goose chase, though she was aware that the professor had a tracking device lying around somewhere in the mess of his other inventions.

"What if me and Bubbles do it? The rest of you can work on other things," Boomer offered himself and his counterpart to follow the robot, aware that while they spent time searching, the others could handle other tasks. Bubbles nodded, agreeing to the idea.

"…Alright. You have a good idea and it may be best to do it now," Blossom granted permission to do it, since the robots didn't seem to be actively attacking the city, it was a good chance to go searching for their base while they had the opportunity.

"But if anything looks off, you break it and run," Brick reminded his brother this drone was something they smash if anything looked suspicious. Boomer nodded, understanding. The professor went to grab the tracking device from one of his many drawers full of various gadgets and gizmos while Boomer grabbed the robot from the glass chamber, holding it by its bulb body to make sure it didn't go anywhere.

"Professor, if we could get more of the metal off the robots, could you maybe design something to break their armor?" Buttercup questioned, wondering if they couldn't figure out what made the material so strong, then maybe they could just wildly make something from it to beat the robots with.

"Of course, but Blossom and Brick got injured to get a few pieces of shrapnel," the professor reminded. Both Butch and Buttercup had grins on them.

"We left the robot we beat tied up! We can take your tools and try and strip it of its metal," Butch excitedly said. He just wanted an excuse to use these dangerous tools that were meant for assembly and not fighting. The puffs' father was hesitant.

"Well… I suppose, as long as Buttercup is with you," he reluctantly gave in, letting the two green children go off to grab the tools, anything that looked good enough that could help remove the metal. The professor brought over the tracking device which was a small round chip that easily stuck onto the robot's bulb body.

"There you go. Now wherever it moves, you should be able to follow," he said, handing over a small remote-sized gadget that had a screen on it, displaying the surrounding area on a map with a big red blinking dot where they were.

"Thanks, professor! Let's go, Boomer!" Bubbles gleefully said, eager to do this. She grabbed her blue counterpart by the hand, flying off in a rush, hearing a few painful grunts as he got dragged up the steps, the robot clunking painfully against each step.

"I better go get ready. Buttercup and Butch will probably need help carrying the metal," Blossom said, yawning. She looked a little messy for the early morning. Her long hair wasn't even brushed.

"I'll make sure Butch doesn't start a fire," Brick let his counterpart go off. He hated to imagine half of these tools in either of his brothers' hands. He just wished things were a lot simpler. This was becoming more troublesome by each hour that passed. He went to help the green super powered children gather tools.

"C-can you slow down, Bubbles?!" Boomer requested. He didn't like being dragged through the air like this. They were trying to get a good distance away from the Utonium household, the robot in his other hand. He was happy to be spending time alone with the blonde girl without fighting each other, a nice change of pace for him.

"Oops! Sorry," Bubbles giggled, stopping. Boomer felt like his arm almost got ripped out of its socket, the two thinking they were at a good distance. They began to land in an eastern part of Townsville, in an open area that looked like it was be ready to have homes constructed on the land.

"Ready?" the blonde ruff asked, looking at the robot under his arm that seemed annoyed at being carried like a football.

"Ready!" she nodded. He put the tiny drone down, watching it immediately scurry off away from the two of them, as if it was terrified or wanted to avoid capture again. Bubbles and Boomer looked at the tracking device so far. It seemed to work, as the blinking red dot was moving with the machine.

"Great! It works," Boomer said. The two took off back into the air, leaving blue streaks of light behind them. They had to follow this robot now for an unknown length of distance. They were going to try their best to go undetected, hoping that this was another step toward overcoming the machines that were an ever increasing threat. They seemed to be so various in types. Each robot seemed unique compared to the last. It was impressive how many were made and what they were capable of. Boomer and Bubbles could only hope that this would end well, not just for their task at hand but for both families, once the robots are dealt with. Bubbles wanted to go three days without fighting the ruffs in a sense. She didn't want to go back to the way things used to be, though she didn't know if Boomer felt the same or not. Still, she tried to keep her focus on following the robot.


	7. Golona

Boomer and Bubbles had certainly been doing their best to follow the tiny robot. It had been two hours since they had started, and so far this tiny robot didn't show any signs of stopping yet. They were forced to not fly too fast in terms. It was able to move fast, but they still could get way ahead of it if they weren't careful.

"Should we stop it?" Bubbles asked. Her blue counterpart had his attention mostly fixed on the tracking device itself. They had been following it for some time, more amazed at how long the drone could go without any worry of shutting down from lack of power.

"Give it another ten minutes then we'll take a break," Boomer nodded. He wanted to make sure they got something out of this time spent. He wasn't going back to his brothers without something to show for all the hard effort. The blonde powerpuff thought it was be better to change topics to try and lessen the stress and boredom that had been building throughout the hours.

"How come your dad's robots don't hold together this well?" Bubbles asked jokingly, wondering why Mojo Jojo's robots were so flimsy in comparison to the new robots. She knew for a fact that the ruffs' creator had a big problem with reusing the previously destroyed robots parts to build the next one, like a horrible recycling system going on. Boomer didn't seem to respond that well to the question.

"My dad's not alive anymore," the blonde ruff stated.

"Did Mojo get in an accident?" Bubbles worriedly inquired, feeling guilty for being insensitive. She hated to imagine someone dying, even if they were the powerpuffs' worst enemy. After all, they hadn't seen the evil monkey in some time.

"Mojo's not my dad. HIM was. All I hear from Mojo is shouting all day and annoying planning," Boomer explained. HIM was the former most terrifying person known throughout Townsville. After the puffs had destroyed the ruffs, HIM had decided to revive them and give them a second chance at revenge. Since then the rowdyruffs had been through odd times between the monkey that created them and the demon that revived them, including a custody battle at one point. Sadly HIM had to be destroyed by the powerpuffs inevitably, and that fateful day came a little over a year ago. That forced the rowdyruff boys back to Mojo.

"You don't like being Boomer Jojo?" Bubbles pressed the topic more, seeing him sigh.

"Nope. I'm just Boomer, alright? Please drop it," the blue ruff requested. His counterpart obeyed, not wanting to hurt his feelings anymore. She wondered if his brothers felt the same. Brick and Butch didn't seem to hate Mojo Jojo that much, but to swear off their own last name was odd. She had to wonder if there was a reason for boomer to have a personal dislike toward Mojo.

The tiny drone was out of sight right now and was scurrying through a few back alleys. It hadn't not stopped yet, but there was a manhole cover. When it crossed over it, the cover sprung up. The tiny machine tumbled over, losing its balance. It didn't get a chance to react before its entire body got grabbed and crushed with minimal effort.

"Here we go…" a voice rung out as the destroyed drone got pulled into the sewers, the manhole cover being left lying nearby.

"Something's off…" Boomer claimed as they continued flying. He gave his counterpart the GPS device. The red dot they had been following had suddenly picked up more speed.

"Are they really that fast?" Bubbles quirked. This wasn't right. They recalled what Brick had told them, if anything was going strangely, they had to smash the drone and flee.

"Let's go break it and we'll head back home…" the blonde girl sadly said. They were hoping to find the robot base, but it turned out to be a waste of time. Just what they feared, it was already two in the afternoon.

"Wait!" Boomer grabbed her hand. She looked at him, confused, but he had a serious look in his eyes. It was odd to see him be so assertive, but she liked him a lot when he wasn't acting afraid around his brothers.

"So what if it got faster? It probably got washed away by a storm drain. We aren't going back without something to show for it," the bright haired boy theorized that maybe it was just bad luck on the drone's behalf, due to the rain last night.

"You're right! Come on, let's go before it's out of range," Bubbles agreed. It made sense to her. She was impressed by how smart he was. Butch and Brick made him out to be the dumbest of the group and maybe they weren't wrong, but she could tell he had a higher intelligence than he let on. The two of them few off to try and catch up to the drone.

It had only been twenty minutes and they had flown another fifty miles. This was ridiculous to them, they had no idea the sewers would be that bad with it. However, abruptly, the red dot they had been following on the GPS for so long came to a stop.

"I think it got stuck," Bubbles said, relieved. She felt a little tired. That was a nice flight, at least. It wasn't too hot out and the clouds were obscuring a good lot of the sun today.

"Is this the robots base?" Boomer had to wonder aloud. If the drone wasn't stuck, then that meant it reached its destination. They both landed on the ground. They were in a suburban part of Townsville. To lightly say this was a rich person neighbourhood was an understatement.

"In the sewer…?" the blonde girl squeaked. She didn't want to get dirty. She hated going into the sewers, but it was unavoidable at times. They found the nearest manhole which was in the middle of the road. They opened it and climbed inside of it. Boomer pulled the cover back over the manhole when they got in.

"Either way, we gotta get it if it's stuck or not," Boomer sighed, hoping they had reached the robot base. The sewers smelt as bad as expected and the water was flowing nearby. Bubbles tried to take a few steps but almost slipped into the dirty river. Thankfully the blue ruff grabbed her and pulled her away, saving her from a future tomato bath.

"Thank you," Bubbles kept a tight grip on his hand. She was afraid to let go. The powerpuffs and rowdyruffs had been working together great thus far. She felt nothing but relaxed and confident with him.

"Anytime. I think this is to a drainage tunnel?" Boomer pointed ahead as they followed the GPS, the red dot blinking the closer they got. He was right, as there was a big drainage tunnel at the end which was a large pit that let the sewer water flow to another area. At the bottom, there were a bunch of pipes in between.

"There's the robot!" Bubbles flew down to one of the many sets of pipes. The tiny drone was caught between some of the pipes. The blue powerpuff was confused, picking it up, seeing how damaged it was. The drone looked like it had been caught in a car crusher at a junkyard. Boomer was keeping an observant eye out.

"One rough ride in the water wouldn't do that," Boomer had to confess, looking around. The blue puff felt sorry for the tiny robot. Just because it was small, it couldn't be as durable as the big robots. She took the tracking device off of it and put it in her pocket, though when she looked down, she saw an odd red light in the darkness at the bottom of the pit. It was beginning to get brighter each second. Her eyes widened as she dropped the drone.

"Boomer, look out!" Bubbles screamed, tackling him out of the way as a huge red laser beam missed them by inches, blasting through the ceiling and breaking right through to the surface. Light broke through and shimmered below. The two quickly flew out through the newly created hole in a surprised fear.

"Thanks for saving me, Bubbles. What was that?!" Boomer was grateful but angry that they had just been jumped out of nowhere. That attack looked too powerful to belong to any of the super powered children anymore. As they saw the road around the hole they had just escaped through, began to crack and strain as something broke through.

"A-a robot!" Bubbles answered. It was scary the way it looked. The robot had two arms that looked normal. Its body however seemed more elegant in design. The colour scheme was black, it had a gold long part on the back of it that looked like a fin. There were two odd blasters attached to the wrists of the robot. The main thing that drew their attention was the robot's face, a scary golden mask that looked like its mouth had a bolts covering it. The robot had green eyes focusing on them.

"It destroyed the drone…" the blonde ruff gritted his teeth, trying to size up the situation. He had a heavy fear in his gut right now. The robot aimed one of its blasters at them.

"You are correct, child, but I am not here to engage in a blind fight," a voice echoed. The super powered blue children stared at it in awe. The robot was talking to them. It did nothing to help the confusion. Every time, the families seemed to get closer to learning more about the mechanical enemies, was when something new and even more astonishing came out to surprise them.

"W-who are you? What do you want?" Bubbles questioned if this robot was friendly and didn't want to fight. She would accept it, but the voice sounded like a woman. The echo made it faint, though still understandable.

"Yeah! And only an idiot attacks first then says they don't want to fight!" Boomer stomped, though didn't notice the hypocrisy behind the comment until after he had already said it.

"I want the material you took from the other Gifted Gear," the female machine explained her requests. The powerpuffs fears of the drone recording everything were right, though they had no idea how easy that footage was to access to all of the machines.

"What's so important about a rock?" Boomer growled. He hated these robots immensely, and this was his first encounter with a real one that wasn't a drone. It ignited an odd fire in his heart. They didn't know what Gifted Gear meant, assuming it to be the name of the robots in general.

"I am not permitted to say. This is my final request. Please turn it over and desist from bothering our operations, before I am forced to take extreme measures," the elegant robot's last warning was given to the blue children. They looked to each other. The looks in their eyes alone were good enough answers to their wonders if they were going to just stand and listen to the demands.

"Please listen! We don't have the rock your friend had. Can you please tell us what you all are doing? Why do you need these?" Bubbles attempted to settle this in peaceful terms, but sadly her soft voice fell on deaf ears.

"I am sorry…" the robot fired both blasters, two red beams heading toward them. They flew out of the way quickly, Boomer darting right for the machine, punching it directly in the face, hoping for that to be the weak point. Sadly, it wasn't. He got smacked away like an annoying blue bottle fly. Bubbles let out a loud ear piercing screech that shattered windows of nearby buildings. Any civilians around were beginning to flee upon the fight starting. The robot was affected partially by this, but the sonic scream wasn't having a good effect. The blonde girl almost got hit by another laser, being forced to duck. Boomer traded a few punches with their enemy, but each hit did nothing but hurt his knuckles.

"I've got an idea. Get her into the air!" Boomer called out. Bubbles nodded, seeing her blue counterpart grab onto the back of the robot, beginning to lift it up off the ground. Bubbles tackled the chest, helping him force the machine straight to the sky high above Townsville. It broke free of their grips, forcing them away.

"Now!" they both fired strong rays of heat vision simultaneously. They watched the mechanical enemy get spiked downward. The long fall, plus the heated up metal, was sure to provide some form of injury. They watched their robotic enemy crash into the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of dirt from how hard it impacted the area beneath it.

"Did we get it?" Bubbles hesitantly broke the silence. They were both panting tiredly. But then, Boomer's eyes widened as another bright red laser blasted from the smoke, hitting him right at the chest. And then surrounding his body with a bigger blast.

"Boomer!" his blue counterpart screamed, seeing that red blast surround him for what seemed like a few seconds. When it vanished, he began to fall, having lost his strength and the ability to fly. Bubbles caught him in her arms, stopping his fall. His dark blue eyes were open, looking terrified.

"Speak to me! Please!" she begged, seeing the elegant looking robot climbing out of the hole it had been forced into. One of its arms were damaged badly. They could see it sparking and dangling by only a few shards of metal.

"I-I can't move…" Boomer forced out. He was terrified, almost feeling like he was dying in her arms. Bubbles cradled him, seeing the robot aim its only functional arm, firing another blast, but she dodged it with ease. Each shot seemed to take quite some time. Her enemy almost was ready to shoot again. She was angry, her light blue eyes were filled with rage. She flew downwards as fast as she could, landing on the ground and resting Boomer down, lying him on the concrete. He was still unable to move any part of his body.

"You'll be fine," Bubbles reassured, promising him that he would recover. The machine was just down the road aiming its blaster turret before firing another big red laser. Bubbles quickly made a ball around herself, forming it into a light blue energy projection sphere. She caught the attack and darted right through it, flying right toward the robot. The laser was cracking her defences, about to break through.

"Stop!" Bubbles screamed, her hyper voice caught the elegant robot off guard, having stopped its strong blast. Bubbles rammed into it at full force, her energy projected barrier vanishing instantly as she collided with it, sending it tumbling down the road. The robot tried to get up, but got punched hard in the head.

"What did you do to him?!" the blonde girl shouted before delivering a fury of punches across the entire chest. The blows did nothing though as the robot raised its arm in the air and slammed it down on top of Bubbles, punching her into the ground. The powerpuff girl was terrified being pinned down like this. The barrel of the blaster was aimed right in her face.

"Please forgive me," Bubbles heard from the echoing robot before it blasted another red laser, while she was pinned to the ground on her back.

Boomer was mortified. He could only hear the noises, but he could barely turn his neck to face his head to the direction where he was hearing everything. It felt like torture, being awake and unable to move, and hearing all that was going on and not being able to help. He felt a rock hit the bottom of his stomach when he saw them. The golden faced machine had bubbles in its grip. She was unconscious, that blast so close had knocked her out.

"What did you do!? Bubbles! Wake up!" Boomer shouted, trying to get her to reawaken. He gained no response. He felt some control coming back to his body, but all he could do now was roll onto his stomach and force himself up onto his feet. He felt like every muscle was still fighting against him.

"I feel remorse doing this. She is merely unconscious, but we cannot have you all hindering progress any further. We will come for the stone," the voice from the machine echoed. She seemed upset to be hurting children. Why she was doing it though was another problem altogether.

"Who… who are you?" Boomer coughed.

"I am Gifted Gear Unit 8. Golona," Golona introduced herself very late. The blue rowdyruff took a step closer.

"Give her back…" he demanded her to relinquish Bubbles. He knew they lost this fight, and he wished to carry her back to her house if he had to. Golona kept her grip firmly on the blue powerpuff. The robot turned away.

"You have a kind heart, but you meddled in the wrong affairs. Until we are done with our tasks, she is going to be held somewhere else," Golona declared. Boomer could swear that his heart wanted to stop, seeing the machine begin to walk away, having defeated them and taken Bubbles captive.

"Get back here! Take me! Not her!" Boomer roared as loud as he could, but received no more response. It felt like his fault that she got captured. Before he knew it, Golona and Bubbles were both out of sight. He panted, burying his face in his hands. He had to get back to the powerpuffs household quickly, and hope the others were there. It was going to be a long walk.


	8. Rescue plans

At the Utonium household, Blossom, Brick, Butch and Buttercup were all arriving back. They had spent all day going back and forth, removing metal from that trapped robot. The problem was that they couldn't remove all the material. The professor's tools failed to cut through some of the pieces. Butch and Buttercup were carrying all they could carry.

"That took forever!" Butch groaned as they entered inside. The ruff leader didn't seem too amused by this.

"Well, if a certain idiot hadn't wasted the laser cutter trying to burn an anthill, we'd have been done sooner," Brick reminded him. He swore to the heavens that his brother had the attention span of a braindead sardine. The black haired boy looked happy recalling it though. Watching those ants run around on fire was amusing. They brought the metal downstairs into the basement, where Buttercup dropped the metal on the floor, hearing it clatter loudly. Butch added onto the mess of a pile. They saw an angry glare from Blossom.

"What? Not like there was anywhere better to put it," Buttercup shrugged. They could see Boomer in the lab, sitting on the counter, his gaze being focused on the ground. He looked horrible. The professor was treating his injuries. The blonde boy hadn't even gotten his powers back yet. He had to walk all the way back to the house.

"Whoa! Bro, what happened?" Butch asked. It was surprising. Brick was wondering if something went wrong with the tracking plan. They spent most of today removing metal to give the blue children a chance to try and find the robot's base. They got no response from Boomer.

"I'm afraid one of the robots intercepted the drone. He told me that the robot talked and called itself Golona," Professor Utonium explained. Boomer had already told him all that had happened, and it was disheartening to the puffs' father. He had nothing but his fullest worry for his kidnapped daughter, but he knew panicking would do nothing. He had to make sure they could beat the robots. He wondered how the other children would handle the news.

"A talking robot? What, like a leader?" Blossom quirked. Maybe these robots were more tactical than they originally gave credit for. The black rock rested in the same place, unmoved. Boomer slowly nodded, too upset to speak. The gifted gear robots weren't working blindly after all.

"Where's Bubbles?" Buttercup questioned, wondering where their blonde sister was. The blue ruff climbed off the counter once his injuries were treated.

"She… she got taken by the robot," Boomer answered. He sounded traumatized, though he could see their expressions. Brick and butch looked to each other, unnerved, imagining one of the group being taken prisoner struck fear in them, as well as how the robot was so smart to actually ruin the plan to find their base.

"Oh gosh… Bubbles," Blossom could only get those words out of her mouth. Buttercup shook her head, angered, as she grabbed Boomer by his shirt, pinning him against the wall.

"I knew this was a bad idea! You might have gotten our sister killed! Do you know what you've done?!" the green powerpuff demanded. If Bubbles was killed by robots instead of taken captive, then the one responsible to the black haired girl was the blue ruff himself. She saw that look in his eyes, only seeing internal destruction.

"Y-you don't think I-I know that?" Boomer sniffled, having tears welling in his eyes. Buttercup realized how badly she reacted to the news, having snapped pointlessly at the blue boy. She had never seen any of the ruffs displaying this much emotion outside of anger or boredom.

"Th-that golden masked jerk disabled my powers. I was too weak. It's all my fault! It's my fault Bubbles is in danger! I already know this!" the blue ruff sobbed. He was broken. The professor had seen those tears once before already. The green powerpuff felt bad for bullying him.

"Boomer, it isn't your fault. You two had a great idea and wanted to see it through," Blossom reassured that no matter who went, it would have probably turned out the same. Someone was going to be captured, if that was Golona's goal that she then accomplished.

"Dude, shut off the waterworks. We'll save her," Brick said. Seeing his brother crying tugged at his heart strings. Normally Boomer would take any abuse from them with little care. But this just went to show how attached he was to his blue counterpart. The ruff leader was wondering what it meant for all of the rowdyruff boys once this robot situation was dealt with. Would they ever be able to battle their counterparts without hesitation again? He could only hope time would tell.

"How? We don't even know where she is," Butch reminded. Blossom was wracking her brain while Buttercup kept quiet, feeling bad for making Boomer cry.

"Did the robot… I mean Golona, tell you anything?" the pink powerpuff asked, hoping that there would be a clue of some form in all the talking, if they did any of that before fighting.

"S-she wanted that dumb rock an-and told us to stop attacking th-them…" Boomer claimed through his choked sobbing, doing his best to calm down. Blossom sighed, seeing no clues in any of that. She had to presume that the rock was the fuel source for the mechanical menaces. The professor hasn't had a chance to examine the black rock because of everything being a bit overwhelming.

"They want it, eh? Then let's take it to them," Buttercup grinned, picking the rock up that she and her green counterpart had gotten from one of those very robots.

"You want to draw them to us like bait? I like the way you think," Brick chuckled. He had to admire that kind of out of the box thinking. Boomer had calmed down. The group were down two members, so this seemed like their best shot. They couldn't wait, since each minute that passed was time lost that could have been put toward saving Bubbles.

"We'll be back later bro. You just try and take it easy," Butch claimed before flying up the steps alongside Buttercup. Blossom approached the blue ruff. He had stopped his crying, but only barely. She wrapped her arms around him.

"You're just as sweet as Bubbles," the orange haired girl giggled, trying to cheer him up. The hug felt nice, and her warm hands on his back felt soothing to him. After a few brief moments, the embrace was broken. She darted off, leaving a pink streak of light behind her to catch up to the green super powered children. Brick was about to follow before he heard his brother's voice again.

"Wh-what if my powers never come back?" Boomer had to ask, seeing the ruff leader shake his head. Right now the blonde boy felt drained, like all of his body had the energy forcibly stolen from it. He was slowly recovering over time, but it was taking so long that it made him nervous over the idea of losing his powers forever.

"They will," Brick retorted.

"How can you be so positive…?"

"Because, you have someone close you've got to protect," the boy in the red cap explained. He had his suspicions of a crush having formed between the blue children in the families. Boomer gained a light blush, seeing his brother head up the steps, leaving him behind to rest. The professor looked unsure, either way.

"Right… time to see what I can do with this metal," Professor Utonium went over to the pile of scrap metal, grabbing a piece out of it. He had plans in mind, but he had to work as fast as he could. Boomer was the closest thing he had to help right now. He just hoped he wouldn't damage anything. The powerpuffs' father hated to see the child so upset. Boomer did remind him all too much of Bubbles.

"Here," Boomer said, pulling out the tracking device from his pocket and resting it on the counter. Professor Utonium saw the red dot which was very far away, blinking.

"Where is the tracking chip?" he quirked, wondering if the blonde boy had gotten that. He hopped up onto the counter in curiosity, having not noticed it still in working order until now.

"We took it off the drone, and Bubbles… oh gosh… she has the tracking chip on her!" Boomer exclaimed happily. This tracking device not only could tell them the whereabouts of the blue powerpuff girl, but maybe where the robots' base as well. It was safe to assume that was where they were holding her captive.

"Wait a second, Boomer," the professor stopped him before he could go running off in a hurry and throwing himself into a suicidal situation.

"What are you doing, professor? We can't waste any time!" he demanded he move already, wishing he had his powers back right now. The professor picked the young boy up. It only seemed to irritate him, to be treated like the child he was.

"We need to be smart about this. I want Bubbles safe and sound as much as you do, but you must think with your brain, not your gut. With your help, we can make something to pierce the robots' armour," Professor Utonium elaborated. Being able to beat up robots like their super armour didn't matter sounded great, though he had doubts about being given anything of such value.

"Sorry for… uh, all the kidnappings," Boomer apologized while being put back down. He didn't want to admit, but being cradled like that felt nice. The professor didn't seem to care much for the past incidents.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad to know there are others watching out for my girls now… even if I have some very, very strong concerns with their moral compasses," Professor Utonium assured it was fine. He just wished his faith and trust were in people who didn't have such a long arrest warrant on their heads. If they ever did get arrested and had a means to be kept in prison, they most likely would have five consecutive life sentences. With that, the two began to start working away hard on the robot piercing material.

Bubbles was groggy as she was beginning to reawaken. Everything was dark, and her vision was blurry.

"Where… am I?" she asked herself. Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness around her as she stood up, feeling drained. It took a moment but her memory quickly came back. The last thing she could recall was being rendered unconscious by that golden masked robot. She looked around the room. It was mostly dark, but from what the blue puff could make out, there weren't any windows. She had been lying on what she could only presume was a big cushion from a piece of furniture, looking like it had been taken from a junkyard.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Bubbles fearfully chimed. She never had been able to handle darkness too well. She remembered every last moment of the kidnapping, which made her more terrified, imagining monsters in the dark with no way to defend herself since she didn't have her powers.

"Eek!" Bubbles squealed, feeling something against her leg, instinctively kicking it as hard as she could. She heard a bashing, followed by a light rattle like a box of tin cans had been knocked down steps. Bubbles had stumbled back into one of the walls. She felt her arm get poked by something. She hoped it was a light switch. She felt it with her hand and flicked it. Thankfully her prayers were answered as the room immediately illuminated.

"Wha-?" Bubbles was trying to gather herself, seeing what she had kicked. It was a drone, the bulb body being a dead giveaway, but it looked horrible, like it was built with leftover parts. It had a faded red colour and was damaged, looking rusted in some parts. She saw a doorway, which was being obscured by a curtain. Maybe she had gotten lucky and the robot that had taken her had left her behind like an empty threat, to remind the super powered kids to not to get in the bots' way. She went through those curtains, the tiny drone getting back up before following her off.

"Why are you following me?" the blonde powerpuff said to the drone. No response was received. She could beat it up more, but what would it matter. The tiny drone seemed to not be trying to hurt her. It just tried to stay close to her side. Bubbles eyes went wide, seeing what she saw before her. She seemed to be in a closed environment. She saw tons of robots, all of various colours and size. She identified a lot that looked like the ones Blossom and Butch had first seen, the big bulky models with one big bulb on one arm, though they seemed inactive. She could only gaze in awe at them, before hearing the sounds of very various banging mechanical noises.

"You are awake," she heard that familiar voice, turning to her side. She saw something she never thought she would see in her life. It appeared to be a grown woman, but she was lacking a lot of her body below her head. Attached to her neck around it firmly was a lot of machinery. The device appeared to resemble female anatomy quite well, being silver in colour with a gold trim at the edge of it. The fingers on the hands appeared quite sharp all. Bubbles stared at all of it. The brown eyed woman with auburn coloured short hair was waiting for a response.

"I assure you, you are in no danger," she added. Hearing that voice again struck a bell in the powerpuff's head.

"G-Golona!" Bubbles gasped. She couldn't believe it was her. It was the voice to the golden masked robot that had taken her hostage. Golona didn't look that tall in size for an adult. She seemed only twenty one years old, but it was hard to tell. The powerpuff could only see her face after all.

"Yes, that is my name, Miss Utonium. It may be rude to stare, but I understand your startled focus," Golona bowed. She seemed like quite the pleasant person. Bubbles shook herself out of her confused state.

"Wh… is that a suit?" Bubbles asked the first of undoubtedly many things on her mind. She wanted to know if that was just a metal suit. It was a horrific image to put in her head, picturing someone without a body and only being a living head. The augmented woman picked up the drone as she ran her hand across it tenderly. The drone appeared content in her arms. She placed it back down.

"No. This is the modular standard operating gear for faced leaders, given to those that survived being reborn," Golona answered. She really was just a person with a robot's body. She began to walk aside, motioning the young girl to follow. Bubbles promptly did so, seeing all types of augmented people working hard on either building robots or making repairs. They all were various in forms of how much they were augmented. Some people only had limbs replaced by the machinery like advanced prosthetics.

"Reborn? I thought you all were just programs," Bubbles admitted, having assumed these robots were nothing but artificial intelligence. They had a long plan in the works, as far as she could tell.

"Everyone here has nearly died. Our father did not give up on us, and managed to save us. Now we're devoted to his cause," Golona explained. Whatever had occurred to her must have been quite horrible. It was an odd new view on the machines that they had seen as nothing but mindless robots, though the robotic woman described father in a creepy sense.

"Why am I here, then? What cause?" Bubbles requested, trying to figure out what this cause was, but was more wanting to go home. She had no powers, and she felt a little uncomfortable being surrounded by the machines. It was overwhelmingly terrifying.

"I am sorry. I am unable to reveal that information. You are in one of our secondary assembly factories. I do apologize. Until everything is complete you are to be held here, and routinely have your powers drained," Golona apologized. She seemed like a truly caring person, but whoever was ordering her around clearly held a great deal of importance to her.

"This drone is to accompany you and keep an eye on you at all times. I must implore you to oblige to us. I have gone out of my way to make sure you are not kept in confinement," the robot girl stated what the rules were to the captivity. Bubbles looked back at the decayed drone that kept right beside her, almost like a loyal dog.

"Why? I mean, if we all are in your way… why be so nice to me?" the puff wanted to know, seeing Golona pat her head. Her cold hands were chilling to the touch, but at the same time felt comforting.

"I know it may not seem like it, but I am more dedicated to vocal debate than fighting," Golona reminded. She wasn't wrong, either. Bubbles remembered that talk they had before. They then heard a loud buzzing noise ring from the ceiling.

"Golona! Come to Repair Bay 3!" a scratchy voice rung out, sounding angry.

"I must attend to this. Please do as I request," she said. Bubbles gave a second before nodding, accepting to obey her orders. Golona walked away hastily to try and get to the other repair bay. Bubbles looked down at the tiny drone, deciding if she was going to be trapped in this strange place, then she was going to do her best to investigate it and see if she can find any useful information. She walked away to begin looking around.


End file.
